


Alexandra Quick and the Order of the Phoenix

by JackbeThimble



Category: Alexandra Quick, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Hogwarts-Houses Divided
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 58,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25103272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackbeThimble/pseuds/JackbeThimble
Summary: Persona Non-grata in Magical America, Alexandra Quick manages to enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for her fifth year. But England has problems of its own and some of Alexandra's own demons have followed her across the pond. New updates Sundays.
Comments: 57
Kudos: 76





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16927533) by [Inverarity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inverarity/pseuds/Inverarity). 



Diagon Alley was never quiet, but today it was quieter than usual, especially for the first week of August. In a normal year the street would have been echoing with the noise of hundreds of young wizards and witches wandering from shop to shop- purchasing new robes from Madam Malkin’s emporium, browsing the years spellbooks from Flourish and Blotts, or eagerly perusing the shelves at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes for items that had definitely not been listed on their letters from Hogwarts. 

But in August of 2011 it was mostly parents doing the shopping, and most looked even more anxious than usual to be done with it. The handful of youngsters present were being shuffled from shop to shop quickly by watchful adults, wary of exposed and public spaces. It was more than a year into Slipfang’s Rebellion and although the goblin who had leant his name to the conflict had been dead almost as long, his followers had neither surrendered nor abandoned the fight. The witches and wizards crowding Diagon Alley acted as though an attack might come at any time.

But even in this atmosphere, an observer might have noticed a slight relaxation and easing of tensions that seemed to spread gradually through the crowd as the brick wall that led to the Leaky Cauldron tavern magically disassembled itself to admit a man with untidy black hair. He was dressed in the muggle style, wearing jeans and a short-sleeved shirt, and he was distinctly average in both height and build. The only thing that stood out about him was an old scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. Harry Potter smiled politely as he noticed wizards around him begin to stare in his direction. He had just passed his thirty-first birthday a few days before, marking his twentieth year since entering the wizarding world, and he had been receiving similar stares for most of those years. 

On his first day in Diagon Alley, he had been known as the ‘Boy Who Lived’- the one who had somehow survived a killing curse from Lord Voldemort, the most powerful Dark Wizard in history, ending Voldemort’s first reign of terror in the process. Years had passed, Voldemort had returned and he had become the ‘Chosen One’, prophesied to be the only one who could stop the Dark Lord a second time. More years of war and death had passed, and at age seventeen he had proved the oracle right by destroying Lord Voldemort permanently, thus becoming “The Hero of Hogwarts”. 

To Harry himself, he was just one of hundreds who had put their lives on the line to protect the people they cared about. In the eyes of Wizarding Britain, however, he was the hero who had saved their country twice. He knew that even as the new war with the goblins dragged on many were still expecting him to save them again. It was Harry, after all, who had led the Auror Office the past four years. Harry had also led the team of aurors that responded to Slipfang’s attack on Hogwarts, barely preventing the goblins from detonating a massive cache of muggle explosives beneath the castle. And it was Harry who had killed Slipfang himself in a desperate battle in the Forbidden Forest. For a brief period it had seemed as though the rebellion had ended and Harry was again the savior of the Wizarding World.

But since the attack on Hogwarts and the burning of Hogsmeade the previous June hardly a week had passed without news of some attack- usually a robbery or the kidnapping or attempted murder of a single witch or wizard, but there had been much worse days. A few weeks after the Hogwarts attack the bodies of five Gringotts Goblins had been discovered in Yorkshire- a letter from SCOURGE to the Daily Prophet had declared them traitors. A dozen goblins armed with stolen wands and muggle firearms had rampaged through Ottery St. Catchpole in November, attempting to loot wizard homes for wands or Goblin artifacts before local wizards had organized themselves and driven them off. The Knight Bus had been attacked and all passengers held hostage in April while ferrying Hogwarts Students home from the Easter Holidays. In July a muggle explosive device had been set off in Knockturn alley, destroying two flats, killing one wizard and injuring more.

Harry could tell that every witch and wizard in Diagon Alley that day had the Knockturn Alley attack on their mind. To most British Wizards, even those who renounced anti-muggle prejudice, Muggles were thought of as bumbling but largely harmless when they were thought of at all. Few wizards had reason to think of the more lethally effective aspects of Muggle ingenuity. To strike so close to Diagon Alley, Magical Britain’s public square, with a weapon that was so poorly understood, had spread terror in a way none of SCOURGE’s attacks had since Hogwarts.

Harry turned away from the watching crowds and stepped aside to make way for a tall, blonde and distractingly beautiful witch. Harry could almost feel the shift in people’s gazes from himself to his sister-in-law, who was turning heads in a way that mere fame could never match. Fleur Delacour Weasley quickly appraised her surroundings before turning to usher two children through the gap in the brick wall before it magically closed.

The first child through the doorway was a boy, thirteen years old but already on the way to an impressive adult height, though his gangly frame had yet to catch up. Teddy Lupin’s hair was dark and wavy at the moment, though that was liable to change without notice.

After Teddy came a younger girl with long blonde hair much like that of the witch who had preceded her. Victoire Weasley was the spitting image of her mother in miniature, with the same silvery-blonde hair and eyes that were deep pools of blue. Only a smattering of freckles gave a hint of her Weasley heritage. She made her way into Diagon Alley after Teddy, continuing the monologue that had been going almost non-stop since she and her mother had arrived at the Leaky Cauldron by Floo Powder.

“... and obviously we all know _maman_ would have been in Ravenclaw if she’d gone to Hogwarts, but since Papa and Uncle Ron and all the others on his side of the family were in Gryffindor and of course there’s so much more of them on that side too logically it makes the most sense that I’ll be in Gryffindor with you Teddy…”

“Makes sense to me.” Harry cut in, catching Victoire by the shoulder as she made to hurtle past him into the street. “But try to stay close to your mother alright? Things are tense here, let’s try to keep track of each other.”

“Okay, Harry.” She flashed him a brief smile which seemed to brighten even the sunny August day before turning back to Teddy and continuing her thesis.

“All Summer like this.” Fleur muttered to Harry. “I just thank god she has someone else today whose ear she can talk off.” Fifteen years in England had improved Fleur’s command of the language immensely though her breathy voice retained more than a trace of her native French accent.

Harry smiled. “I’m just glad that she’s still looking forward to Hogwarts- that she’s not afraid I mean. She might make a Gryffindor after all.” He consulted a parchment that Teddy’s grandmother had given him this morning. “Most of what we need is at Flourish and Blott’s, though Teddy could use some new robes as well. Do you want to hit Malkin’s and Flourish and Blott’s together first then we can look at the apothecary and get Victoire’s wand at the end of the day?”

Fleur shook her head. “We have her wand already, we made sure to get her matched in Brittany when we visited my mother in June. With all the troubles I had heard of children unable to find proper wands in England.” 

Harry nodded. Wand thefts were a headache he had been dealing with at the auror office since even before the Rebellion started. “Good idea, well that should shorten this trip. I still think we should stay together so-”

“Violet!” Teddy’s voice interrupted their deliberations.

Harry turned to see Teddy waving over Victoire’s shoulder at a girl who had just stepped out of Flourish and Blotts. The newcomer was around the same age as Teddy, though small for her age. She was dressed in fashionable dress robes of green trimmed with silver and her hair was freshly and professionally styled, none of which could quite conceal her overall homeliness. The girl smiled when she saw Teddy, though the look faded as another figure emerged from the bookstore behind her.

Draco Malfoy had lost some of his white-blonde hair and gained a few pounds and a well-trimmed beard in the years since he had been Harry’s nemesis at Hogwarts. Like his daughter he wore fine, green-and-silver dress robes and he carried several well-laden shopping bags. Malfoy caught Harry’s eye as he stepped into the street. Harry nodded politely but was surprised when Malfoy took Violet’s hand and the pair crossed the street. Teddy grinned and went to meet the pair and after a moment Victoire followed him silently.

Malfoy let go of Violet’s hand and offered his own to Teddy. “Teddy Lupin I believe? I don’t think we’ve ever met but Violet speaks highly of you.”

Harry and Fleur made their way over as Teddy took the offered hand, looking uncomfortable. “Er- Thank you sir, Mr. Malfoy.”

Malfoy’s eyes turned to Harry again. “I imagine your godfather has spoken of me as well.”

“No -er- I mean…”

Harry spoke up. “May I help you, Draco?”

Malfoy placed his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and spoke. “Violet, go ahead, talk to your friends.” Then he turned to Fleur. “Madame Weasley, may I borrow Harry for a moment? I have some business I need to discuss with him.”

Fleur looked to Harry who shrugged. “Maybe just take them into Flourish and Blotts Fleur? They shouldn’t stand around in the street. I’ll meet you all in there shortly.”

She nodded and frowned at Malfoy as she led the children across the street, leaving the two of them alone.

Malfoy reached into his pocket and casually drew his wand, careful to avoid any sudden movements. Harry raised his eyebrows when Malfoy murmured ‘ _muffliato._ ’ before he pocketed the wand again. 

“A little melodramatic don’t you think?” Harry asked.

“I won’t waste your time Potter. Minister Travers is planning to introduce a new War Powers Act to the Witan next month. He expects it to fail and trigger an election.”

Harry sighed. “I can’t comment on political matters…”

Malfoy ignored him “I’ve heard that Hermione Granger is planning to run for Minister when the government falls. Is that true?”

Harry’s eyebrows went up another half-inch. Nobody outside the family was supposed to know that yet. “Dunno, why don’t you ask her?”

Malfoy’s expression did not waver. “I don’t believe that it would be wise for her to do so.”

Harry snorted. “Well if there’s one thing Hermione likes it’s unsolicited advice from a Malfoy.”

Malfoy did not look amused. “This isn’t a joke, Potter. I’m not here for the pleasure of your company. Travers picked this law as his hill to die on because he believes he can win by running on it and get the legitimacy to deal with the goblins as he pleases. If he wins he won’t need to worry so much about how it would look sacking the Chosen One- kicking you out of the Auror’s Office will probably be his first act of his second term.”

Malfoy was right as far as it went. Travers had been looking for a way to sack Harry since the start of his Ministry. Promoting Harry to head of the Auror Office had been one of Minister Shacklebolt’s last acts before leaving office. Harry knew that Minister Travers had always viewed Harry as a loyalist to his defeated opponent, not to mention a latent political threat. Harry suspected that the possibility of Harry running for Minister himself kept Travers up at night, which was likely why Harry still had a job three years into this Ministry. But Harry knew all of this already, and the fact that Travers was playing politics with the management of the Goblin Rebellion was new information but unsurprising given Harry’s experience with the man.

Harry shrugged “Whether this is true or not, I’m not sure what your interest in this is. Shouldn’t you be dancing on my grave right about now?”

“Potter, don’t be a fool and don’t assume I’m one either. My daughter was at Hogwarts when the goblins attacked. She’ll be going back there in a month. Do you think I care about a schoolboy grudge when her life is on the line? We both know you're the best man to run the Auror office. Merlin, everyone in Britain knows it except Stephen Travers.”

Harry looked back at Flourish and Blott’s. Through a window he could see Teddy and Violet peeking at the two of them. Malfoy’s surprisingly earnest words were forcing him to take him seriously for the first time. He looked back at Malfoy.

“Well, Draco I didn’t know you had so much faith in me. Looking at the Prophet and the Quibbler these days I think you might be the only one.”

“People are scared and tired, Potter.” said Malfoy. “The war is going badly and Travers is doing everything he can to make you the face of it, and the Prophet reporters are eating it up because putting your face on a broadsheet sells papers. Travers is playing politics with this and he’s doing it well but I don’t trust him to fight this war, much less end it.”

“But you don’t trust Hermione to fight it either?”

Malfoy sighed. “Whether I do or not isn’t the issue. She’s spent her entire career since Hogwarts trying to free House Elves and pay reparations to the Goblins. Just last year she was representing a Goblin family before the wizengamot. People aren’t going to forget that she’s been on the same side as SCOURGE and they sure aren’t going to forget that she wants to take their house elves away.”

Harry snorted. “How many voters even own House Elves to free?”

“Enough to matter and you know it. And the ones that do are the ones who matter most. The ones who own shares in the Prophet, and the families with permanent seats on the Wizengamot. And even the ones who don’t have Elves remember that the Hogwarts Elves betrayed their children to Slipfang last year. Elf and Goblin liberation isn’t going to be a winning issue in the middle of a war with the Elves and the Goblins, Potter.”

“The elves at Hogwarts weren’t acting willingly.” There was real anger in Harry’s voice for the first time “Most of them were compelled and they helped save the students after they were freed.”

“Good luck fitting that on a campaign poster.” replied Malfoy. “‘Granger preaches Surrender’ has a better ring to it. Look as I said this isn’t about you, me or Granger; it’s about reality. Granger would be a longshot even if there wasn’t a war going on- her pushing on the SPEW nonsense is half of what brought Shacklebolt down. In a different year you might bet on the long odds of electing the first Muggle-born Minister on a platform of upending our whole society, but it’s foolish with this much on the line. Wizards here aren’t just thinking about our Goblin trouble you know. They see what’s going on in America. If Granger runs on the same Elf Rights and Liberalization platform she’s been pushing for the last 10 year it will be easy to paint her with the same brush as Abraham Thorn.”

Harry frowned at that. He somehow doubted that Malfoy’s motives were as disinterested as he claimed. The Malfoys may not have had a House Elf anymore and it had been a long time since they had openly preached pure blood supremacy, but they were still an old family with plenty to lose from any adjustment to the status quo- or any full accounting of the costs of the last war. For a moment Harry considered whether this might be some trick or trap or other act of bad faith on Malfoy’s part.

_No_ he decided. The Draco Malfoy Harry knew pretty much only cared about one thing and that was his family. If anything would get him to reach out after decades of belligerence it would be their safety. This wasn’t a trick or a school boy insult, Malfoy at least thought he was being helpful. And if what he’d said about Travers’ plans was true he had given Harry valuable information. Harry figured he at least ought to take the warning seriously.

“So who would you rather see run, Draco?” he asked, grateful for the _Muffliato_ charm now that he was dropping the pretense.

“You.” Malfoy said immediately. “That’s what Travers is scared of and he should be.”

Harry sighed. “Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, and even if I would make a good Minister, which I wouldn’t; I’m kind of busy right now, what with fighting a Rebellion and all. The place I need to be right now is right where I am, running the Auror Office.”

Malfoy didn’t miss a beat. “Bill Weasley, then. He’s older and more experienced, he’s a war hero, he’s got experience with the goblins…”

“He’s practically running the Goblin Liason Office.” Harry pointed out. “He’s half the reason we’ve still got communications open with the Gringotts directors and probably half the reason they haven’t backed SCOURGE already. He can’t just take a time-out on that job to run for Minister or we’ll be back to square one until we can find another go-between the goblins trust.”

“If Granger is Travers’ opponent, he’ll win and both you and Weasley will be sacked by the new year.” Malfoy retorted.

“Maybe. It wouldn’t exactly be the first time you’ve bet against her and lost.” Harry was finally losing patience. “Your advice was appreciated, Draco, I’ll pass it along.”

The part of Harry that was still a schoolboy felt a twinge of satisfaction to see Malfoy fume.

“Since you mentioned Thorn.” Harry continued. “I actually had some business to discuss with you as well. Concerning some recent decisions by the Hogwarts Board of Governors.”

Harry had to admire the speed with which Malfoy’s face became studiously blank. “Then your business isn't with me, I don’t have a seat on the Board.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Perhaps not, but when my office contacted the DME to inquire about the logic of inviting an infamous Dark Wizard’s daughter who’s been kicked out of every Magical School in America to study in Britain in the middle of a Goblin Rebellion, I was curious to learn that those speaking in favor of the decision were the same five who always seem to come up with a reason to do whatever Draco Malfoy hopes they will.”

Malfoy shrugged nonchalantly. “If the board found that the applicant’s right to a Magical Education was being infringed upon for reasons of discrimination…”

“Right, there are a lot of bleeding hearts on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.” Harry was not smiling now. “If I have to ask you again, Draco, it will be as an auror not an old school chum.”

Now it was Malfoy’s turn to sigh. “There is nothing sinister about it Potter, merely the type of ‘favor for a friend’ our society runs on. The Malfoys and the Thorns have connections going back more than four hundred years. Both family’s fortunes have had their ups and downs but despite the vagaries of politics that bond has been a resource both of our families could call on. Helping the young lady pursue her right to an education was simply holding up the Malfoy’s end of the deal for this generation.”

“Thank you for the history lesson. I hope scratching Abraham Thorn’s back doesn’t endanger your daughter at Hogwarts.”

Malfoy shook his head. “Now you’re the one being melodramatic. And misinformed. As far as I can tell the girl is no dark sorceress. If anything she reminds me of yourself at that age. Truly Potter, you have far more pressing matters to deal with. I believe we are done here.” Malfoy turned and, seeing Teddy and Violet still watching from the store window, beckoned to his daughter. Violet disappeared from the window and stepped into the street to join them.

As he took Violet’s hand, Malfoy turned to Harry one more time. “Good luck and good hunting Potter, I hope you will consider my words in the spirit in which they were meant.” With that father and daughter walked off towards the Leaky Cauldron and out of Diagon Alley.

Harry did not join Fleur and the children in Flourish and Blotts, instead he waited in the street, considering Malfoy’s words until they emerged, arms laden with books.

He would pass the information on to Hermione and Ron, he decided, but he doubted it would affect Hermione’s plans. The information about Minister Traver’s plans might at least be valuable.

As Harry guided his niece and godson off towards the next wizarding shop he did spare half a thought for the young witch that would be arriving soon from America. But Malfoy was probably right- Harry had far more important problems than a fifteen year-old delinquent, even the daughter of an infamous Dark Wizard. Alexandra Quick would be the Hogwarts Professor’s problem to deal with.


	2. Arrival

_Dear Ms. Quick_

  


_We are writing to inform you that your application to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been reviewed by the Hogwarts Board of Governors. Although it is the general policy at Hogwarts not to accept mid-stream transfers except in the case of new immigrants to Magical Britain, Hogwarts is a member of the European Association of Magical Colleges as well as a signatory of the International Confederation of Wizards Educational Protocols which specify the right to a magical education for all youth of proven magical capability. Given the documentation provided and the evidence of politically motivated discrimination in your case, the Board of Governors have approved your request for special admission for the 2011-2012 term. Congratulations and welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

_You will be required to present yourself at the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Ministry of Magic no later than 4 weeks prior to the start of term (August 4th) for certification of your student visa. You will also be required to complete standard placement examinations in core Hogwarts subjects prior to the start of term. These examinations will take place at the Department of Magical Education, Wizarding Examinations Authority at a date to be determined. The results of these examinations will be used to assess the appropriate grade level to begin your schooling at Hogwarts._

_Given the current security situation in Magical Britain, the safety of Hogwarts Students and Faculty is a particular concern of our staff at this time. Lodgings have been arranged for you for the month of August in the Leaky Cauldron Tavern (Charing Cross Road, London). Please provide details of your travel plans with your return owl prior to your arrival date and a Hogwarts official will be present to escort you safely to your Ministry appointment._

_Enclosed is a temporary student visa that may be presented on entry to wizarding or muggle authorities as well as a list of mandatory supplies that will be required prior to the start of term. All can be acquired at Diagon Alley, which will be easily accessible from your lodgings at the Leaky Cauldron (Note: The current security difficulties in Magical Britain have led to an epidemic of wand thefts and consequently there is a shortage of wands for incoming Hogwarts Students. It will not be possible to guarantee that a new wand can be made prior to the start of term and you are advised to bring your own wand if possible). A list of required textbooks will be available following the completion of your placement examination. Congratulations again and good luck on your studies at Hogwarts. We look forward to meeting you in September._

  


_Yours Sincerely_

_Filius Flitwick_

_Deputy Headmaster_

  


When Alexandra Quick first set foot in Britain, it was not by way of apparition, a portkey or any other magical form of transportation. Rather, she arrived in London on an airliner landing at Heathrow by way of Chicago O’Hare and Lisbon International. Alexandra had been necessarily thrifty in booking her flight and so she was arriving after a combined twelve hours in a cramped coach compartment punctuated by five more spent sitting in a Portuguese airport. Whatever excitement she had felt on departing for her first trip to the Old World had vanished into a fog of irritation, sleep deprivation and body odor by the time she finally deplaned. 

Alexandra stepped off the boarding ramp into the terminal, shouldering her enchanted backpack and making a final, ultimately futile effort to pop her ears before following the walkway towards Customs. It was an overcast late afternoon in London and through the glass walls of the terminal she could see the comings and goings of jets beneath a high canopy of light-grey clouds. From where she stood it could almost pass for any airport in the United States except that in America, as in Alexandra’s brain, it was still Eleven-Thirty in the morning.

Alexandra made her way through customs in a haze of fatigue- the agents eyes glazed over when Alexandra showed her a roll of yellowing parchment bearing a large, purple wax seal with the Hogwarts coat of arms and waved her through without further comment- and proceeded down crowded escalators and long, glass-walled hallways towards the baggage claim area. 

It took her a while to find the small office tucked behind the baggage carousels where, after a long wait, an attendant produced a wire bird cage containing a large raven that looked just as tired and irritable as Alexandra felt. She smiled to see the bird and thanked the attendant before finding a bench against the wall where she sat down with the cage next to her.

“Hey Charlie.” she dug into her backpack until she found several owl treats and handed them through the cage to the raven. “How was your flight?”

“Kill me.” replied the raven before accepting the treats greedily.

“Drama Queen. Oh well, we’re here now right?”

Charlie was too busy eating for another retort. Alexandra dug in her jean pocket until she found the scrap of parchment she’d received by owl a week earlier. She smoothed it out on lap to read:

_Ms. Quick_

_I will be there to meet you at the baggage claim area on the day of your arrival. I will be dressed in Muggle Attire, wearing red and gold. It is important that you do not leave the airport prior to meeting me and do not use any magic prior to your arrival at Hogwarts._

_Regards_

_Professor Neville Longbottom_

_Head of Gryffindor House_

“Alright Charlie keep an eye out, we’re looking for a guy in red and gold.” Alexandra glanced around the baggage area, it wasn’t a difficult search.

Professor Longbottom’s use of the term ‘muggle attire’ had led Alexandra to assume he had been raised in the Wizarding World, an impression that his appearance quickly confirmed. Still, the professor’s muggle disguise was far from the worst Alexandra had seen. The tall, blonde, surprisingly young man wore a business suit which likely would have fit in well in the Muggle London of only sixty or seventy years before and might have passed with only a few raised eyebrows even in 2011 were it not for the color scheme. Professor Longbottom wore a top hat, bow tie, tailed jacket, waistcoat and trousers of burnished gold and a shirt, shoes, socks, pocket handkerchief and badge of deep crimson. Alex wasn’t sure what kind of performer Professor Longbottom resembled, but he definitely looked like he belonged on some kind of stage in front of a live audience rather than working his way through the crowded baggage claim towards her at Heathrow Airport.

“Miss Quick?” he asked, sounding a little unsure. Alexandra knew she’d have to get used to English accents but they still felt out of place to her.

“That’s me.” Alexandra couldn’t quite stifle another yawn as the man approached. “You would be Professor Longbottom?” She stood and offered her hand to shake.

“Pleased to meet you.” Longbottom took the offered hand and gave Alex an appraising look, his eyes settling on the raven beside her with a hint of a frown.

“Oh, and this is Charlie.” Alexandra added, wondering if British wizards had the same superstitions about ravens as their American counterparts.

“Pretty bird.” Charlie opined. Alexandra couldn’t contain a snort of laughter.

Longbottom raised an eyebrow at Alexandra.

“He, uh… I think he likes your outfit professor.”

Longbottom beamed. “Oh? My wife will be pleased. Hannah dressed me this morning you see. Her father’s a muggle and she’s always been better at blending than I am.”

Alexandra laughed, relieved. “Well, we approve of her taste.”

“That’s a relief, I thought I was getting some odd looks from those fellows over there. Foreigners I imagine. How was your journey Miss Quick?”

“Uh… pretty terrible.” Alexandra replied honestly.

Longbottom nodded with some sympathy. “I was surprised that you were using muggle transport. Could you not afford an international portkey? The school has a travel allowance that would have covered some of it.”

“I’m uh… what’s the term- _persona non grata_ in the Confederation. I think the Governor General’s made it known that anyone doing business with me is on his personal enemies list. Part of how I ended up applying to Hogwarts in the first place.”

Longbottom looked disturbed. “Because of your… family ties?”

Alexandra hesitated a moment before nodding. “Pretty much.”

“I see. Well, Miss Quick I can assure you that at Hogwarts you will not be judged by the actions of your parents.”

Alexandra nodded again, not sure if she believed him. “That’s a relief.”

“Well, please get the rest of your luggage and we can be off. We’ll need to take the Muggle Underground I’m afraid. The Department of Magical Transportation does not have any good links with this airport and with the troubles we’ve been having the Ministry has put anti-apparition wards around Diagon Alley. It may take us a while to get into London.”

Alexandra shouldered her pack. “I’ve got my luggage already. We can go whenever.”

Longbottom looked at the pack with some curiosity but did not comment. “Can I give you a hand with Charlie? No offense but you look ready to keel over.”

Alexandra’s first instinct was to refuse, but she was exhausted. She looked down at Charlie and, feeling no objection from her Familiar, she handed the cage to Professor Longbottom. “That would be fine, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Longbottom beckoned her to follow with his free hand and led her towards another long hallway with a sign saying “Heathrow Express.”

*****

“...Strictly speaking the Hogwarts Pets policy only allows owls, cats and toads but it isn’t hard to get an exception.” Professor Longbottom said. “ I haven’t known any student to have a raven since I’ve been at Hogwarts but I don’t think it should be a problem.”

The two of them were seated in a red train car as it hurtled through a tunnel towards London. They were lucky enough to have caught a nearly empty train and Alexandra had placed Charlie’s cage on the seat beside her while Professor Longbottom looked back at them from the bench in front. 

“Are people here cool with Raven familiars then?” Alexandra asked, raising her voice over the noise of the train. “In the Confederation there’s a ton of superstition about them being dark and I wasn’t sure what wizards thought in Britain.”

“Wizards here are mostly-er- ‘Cool’ about ravens I would say. I’ve never heard anything about them being associated with dark arts at least.” Longbottom replied. “I suppose if you don’t get sorted into Ravenclaw it might lead to some confusion though.”

“That’s… one of the four houses right? Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin and uh…”

“Hufflepuff. Yes. All Hogwarts students are sorted into one of the four houses with whom they will live and study for their time at Hogwarts.”

“Right. So you picking me up at the airport does that mean I’m in Gryffindor? That’s your house right?”

“No. You’ll be sorted in the normal way when you arrive at Hogwarts on the first day of term. You aren’t the first student we’ve had join us from the Confederation in the last few years, we’ve developed new procedures to manage mid-stream transfers. Not that I wouldn’t be happy to have you in my house if that’s how it goes.”

Alexandra doubted that attitude would last long into the term “And what’s the normal way of sorting?”

“The Sorting Hat.” Professor Longbottom didn’t elaborate.

Alexandra was distracted from further questioning when the train exited the tunnel and a view of the suburbs of London streamed by them. Despite her weariness Alexandra couldn’t help peering eagerly out for her first glimpse of a foreign country. She saw neighborhoods of brick homes with plentiful greenery which gradually condensed into low rise dwelling and streets packed with businesses as they got closer to London. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was expecting- there was certainly nothing in her immediate view that could be described as a ‘castle.’ To Alexandra’s mild disappointment, much of what she saw looked like it would almost fit in America, if not in the relatively small slice of the Midwest Alexandra knew then perhaps in some other city. But every time she spotted some detail that read to her as out of place- different-shaped traffic lights or odd street signs, cars driving on the wrong side of the street, some cobblestone roads, dozens more little details- it drew her attention and got her looking for more.

After a few more stops the train went underground again. Alexandra slumped back in her seat with a hint of disappointment to find Professor Longbottom smiling at her indulgently.

“Wait until you see Hogwarts.” He said.

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “I’ve been to a magic school before. Charmbridge is one of the Big Four you know.”

Longbottom frowned. “You’ll want to get in the habit of referring to teachers as ‘Professor’ or ‘Sir’ when you get to Hogwarts. I hope you understand the opportunity you’re being given here. The Board of Governors determined that your government was infringing on your Right to a magical education, so Hogwarts was obligated to offer you a position, but that doesn’t mean that disrespect or behavior like what was documented at your previous school will be tolerated.”

Alexandra felt a wave of irritation and embarrassment and could feel herself blushing. 

_I didn’t mean to disrespect you I just-_ she tried to calm herself.

“I understand, Professor. I’m… grateful for the opportunity here and I won’t let you down. What happened last year... there were extraordinary circumstances and it wasn’t entirely my fault.” 

It sounded a little lame, even to her. _As long as no one’s trying to murder me here I should be fine._

Professor Longbottom’s expression was still serious. “Be that as it may the situation at Hogwarts is quite serious. The school hasn’t suffered any more direct attacks like the one a year ago but the conflict with SCOURGE is still a danger and we can’t allow any risk to the security of the school or other students. You’ve been given a chance, but if you disobey or disrespect Hogwarts staff, or act in any way that endangers yourself or other students, or have any involvement with the dark arts, we will send you home. Understood?”

Alexandra was feeling an urge to sink back in her seat. She had started to like Professor Longbottom, ‘Muggle Attire’ and all, but despite his promises to the contrary she felt like she was back in the Confederation, assumed to be a dark sorceress and criminal because of who her father was.

Alexandra did not shrink or retreat, and she managed to suppress a glare and keep her face neutral. “Understood Professor.”

“Big Fat Jerk.” Charlie piped up. Alexandra hushed the raven and Professor Longbottom politely ignored the comment.

An awkward silence fell for a minute before Alex got her anger under enough control to ask a question politely.

“The goblins- I heard about the attack on Hogwarts on the Wizard Wireless but it said that it was stopped and Harry Potter killed their leader. From what I heard I thought it was under control.”

Professor Longbottom looked skeptical. “It… isn’t. As I said there haven’t been any more attacks on Hogwarts but even with their leader gone, SCOURGE have gone on fighting. At first it was mostly other goblins they were targeting- it’s hard to get clear information on what’s going on within the goblin communities but we know that dozens of them were murdered, including many of the Gringotts management. The wand thefts have gone on- though none more at Hogwarts- and since last summer there’s been attacks on wizards somewhere in Britain at least once a month. Now they’ve started using muggle explosives. They set one off in Diagon Alley and blew up a flat in Knockturn Alley last month. That’s why you won’t be able to go out into Diagon Alley without supervision while you’re here. I’m afraid you’ll be staying inside the Leaky Cauldron for most of the month.”

Alexandra was quiet after that. She wasn’t terribly attentive to the Wizarding Wireless or newspapers in the Confederation, except when her father was mentioned. Even so she thought it was strange that she remembered hardly any stories on the goblin conflict in Britain since the previous Summer. Was the Confederation Wizarding press simply too focused on Abraham Thorn to cover what was going on across the Atlantic? Or did someone want to suppress news about the Goblin Rebellion?

Before long the crisp, recorded voice of a muggle woman announced that they had arrived at Totenham Court Road Station. Alexandra and Professor Longbottom made their way off the train and out of the labyrinthine underground.

*****

The Leaky Cauldron turned out to be a Wizarding inn situated in the middle of a busy muggle street in downtown London. It was a tall, timber-framed building with prominent cross-gables, white walls and a red brick chimney squeezed between muggle shops on either side. Although it was well-kept and looked to have been recently repainted, the architectural style was clearly several centuries out of step with the buildings around it.

The interior was warm and welcoming. Longbottom led Alex through the entryway and past a spiral staircase into a large bar room with flagstone floors and wattle-and-daub walls painted white. The room was lit by a blazing hearth, though there was no hint of smoke- Alex assumed they must have excellent atmospheric charms. A bar with a polished oak surface dominated one half of the room and low wooden chairs and tables of many shapes and sizes were scattered around the rest of the space. Most of these looked fairly typical but Alexandra saw several small, round tables with stools less than a foot high and in a corner far from the hearth she saw several sturdy chairs the size of tree stumps that looked like they could comfortably hold a troll. As Alexandra and Professor Longbottom entered from the street another door next to the bar opened to admit a witch and wizard wearing long brown overcoats over black robes. Behind them Alexandra glimpsed a small courtyard facing an unremarkable brick wall.

“Merlin, Neville what’s the occasion?” Asked the wizard, a tall and slender redhead with a freckled face, as he grinned at Professor Longbottom’s outfit.

“Had to make a pick-up from the airport.” Longbottom replied, nodding towards Alexandra as he took a seat at the bar.

“Ah, so you’re babysitting today too.”

The redheaded man’s companion, a dark-skinned young woman with straight black hair and an aquiline nose, rolled her eyes behind his back. Alexandra noted that the long coats the two wore had ‘DMLE’ stitched on the shoulder in gold lettering which if she remembered correctly stood for ‘Department of Magical Law Enforcement”.  
_Aurors?_ The girl looked only a few years older than Alexandra herself.

“Oh there you are Nev!” Another witch had just come from the stairwell. She looked to be in her late twenties, pretty and full-figured with a ruddy complexion and blonde hair held in a ponytail. She wore an apron with a wand handle sticking out of a front pocket over a short sleeved dress and she made her way across the bar room to Professor Longbottom, draping an arm lightly around his shoulders. She noticed Alexandra and smiled. “And you must be Miss Quick! I just finished getting your room setup! Where are your bags? We can get you settled in immediately!”

Professor Longbottom made a calming gesture and spoke to Alexandra. “Introductions- Alexandra Quick, this is Hannah, my wife who also happens to be the owner and proprietor of the Leaky Cauldron. The auror is Ron Weasley and his trainee is Ophilia Karait, until recently a student of mine. Everyone else, this is Alexandra Quick, newly arrived from the Confederation. She’ll be joining us at Hogwarts this year.”

“Another from the Confederation.” Weasley looked down at Charlie’s cage which Alexandra was carrying. “Are we thinking Ravenclaw for this one?”

Ophilia cocked an eyebrow from where she was leaning at the bar. “Shouldn’t she have an eagle in that case?”

Alexandra saw Weasley smirk. “Why do you say that Miss Karait?”

Ophilia paused. “Because the symbol of Ravenclaw house is a bronze eagle, not a raven, sir.”

Weasley looked back at her. “Ophilia, do you own a pet snake?”

She frowned. “No, sir.”

“Professor Longbottom, do either of us, in fact, own a pet Lion?”

Professor Longbottom covered his mouth. “No Auror Weasley, in fact Hannah’s allergic to cats.”

“Speaking of Hannah, Mrs. Longbottom do you have any badgers around here that I don’t know about? It’s important that you tell the truth here, it could be a public safety risk.”

Mrs. Longbottom rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a berk, Ron.”

Ophilia kept her composure, despite turning slightly red. “I didn’t mean…”

Weasley just smiled at her. “Miss Karait, how do the Wards look?”

Ophilia looked taken off guard again by the change of subject “I… don’t know.”

“Well there’s no shame in not knowing, only in not finding out.” Weasley gestured towards the entrance. “Check the Charing Cross and Diagon Alley sides if you please, and renew the anti-apparition wards while you’re at it.”

“… yes sir.” Ophilia straightened up and left the bar room with impressive dignity despite still being beet-red in the face.

When she was gone, Weasley took a seat at the bar. “No joke Neville, I’m starting to see why you became a Professor, teaching is great.”

“Berk.” Charlie spoke up. Alexandra was inclined to agree.

“I can show you two to your room Miss Quick.” Said Hannah, glaring at the auror as she led Alexandra towards the staircase.

*****

“...and the bucket and tub have water and heating charms on them, the mirror can explain precisely how they work.” Hannah explained. “If you want to rest a bit, maybe take a bath then you can come right back down for dinner. Hogwarts is footing the bill for your room and board until the start of term.”

Alexandra’s room on the third floor turned out to be almost as large as the suite she shared with three other girls at Charmbridge. The walls were white-painted wattle and daub like the Leaky Cauldron’s bar room and the room featured a window onto the muggle street outside, a bathroom with a large bronze bathtub and a red brick fireplace that was already blazing with a warm but utterly smokeless fire when she first set foot inside. The furniture included a large four-poster bed, a rocking chair and a wardrobe, all of polished oak.

A glance around the room with her Witch’s Sight revealed a more interesting picture. Magic seemed woven into every brick of the Leaky Cauldron. The wattle-and-daub walls were fortified by Hardening charms and Fire-Resistance charms, the thick curtains on the window boasted Light- and Noise- reduction charms and the window was protected by a shield charm. The room itself was suffused with atmospheric charms which seemed to be connected to the magic of the fireplace so as to control temperature

Hannah handed Alexandra an old-fashioned silver key with the numbers ‘304’ stamped on it. “I must be off, we’ll be getting the supper rush soon, or what passes for it these days. Feel free to join us whenever you’re hungry.” The landlady hurried off, closing the door behind her.

Alexandra quickly changed from the sweaty jeans and t-shirt she had traveled in into a simple black robe. She took a long look at herself in the bathroom mirror, looking like a witch for the first time since her hearing in July.

“Pretty bird.” Charlie commented from his post atop one of the bed posts. She smiled and looked back at the mirror.

_I’m going back to school, they tried to kick me out of the magical world, and they failed._ Even tired, and half a world away from everyone and everything she cared about, that thought was enough to cheer her. 

“Come on pretty bird, time for dinner.” Charlie descended to perch on her shoulder and she smiled at herself in the mirror before heading back down the stairs.

She paused in the entryway when she saw Auror Weasley and Ophilia inspecting the front door with their wands out.

“No, see.” Weasley said as he gestured with his wand. “The apparition ward is fine, but you re-cast the deflection charm too.”

“What do you mean?” Ophilia sounded a little exasperated. “I cast it just fine, I even tested it.”

“Yeah but you didn’t weave it in with the other wards. This is an array, the different wards are supposed to reinforce each other and prolong the effect. If we leave it like this your charm will be worn out by this time tomorrow and the rest will be too weak by the day after. Here I’ll re-cast this one then I’ll watch you do it again on the Diagon Alley side. We’ve got time we might as well do this right…”

Ophilia watched quietly as the senior auror re-established the protective spells while Alexandra, leaning unnoticed against the bannister behind them, looked on. The wards on the Leaky Cauldron were not subtle or hidden- to Alexandra’s Witch’s Sight their glow suffused the entire building. Their power was concentrated at the entrances and faded the further indoors she looked. She watched carefully as Auror Weasley wove the new spell and was able to see how the new working intermingled with the established defenses, their interaction strengthening each individual part, but she did not recognize the individual spells and could not judge just what protections were in place. She could tell that the defenses were oriented outwards and that they were focused on deflecting attacks or curses originating from outside rather than inhibiting entry or exit. She saw more than one witch or wizard enter the pub even as Auror Weasley was reinforcing the wards and there was no barrier or alarm evident.

Charlie nipped at Alexandra’s ear with more irritation than affection and she jumped. “Ow! What?”

“Greedy bird!”

“Okay! Okay!” Alexandra rubbed her ear as she headed into the dining room.  
The Inn was less busy than what Alexandra expected during the ‘Supper Rush’. Hannah Longbottom greeted her from the bar and summoned a heaping plate of roast beef, potatoes, carrots and peas with a generous helping of gravy from the kitchen with a wave of her wand. With few guests to keep her occupied, the landlady kept up a steady conversation with her new guest. Alexandra learned all about Hannah’s new puppy (asleep in the Longbottom’s suite upstairs), her cousin in Hudson territory (Hannah seemed slightly disappointed to learn Alexandra had never been there and confused when she referred to it as ‘a different country’) and the Leaky Cauldron’s recent business (it was poor, which Hannah blamed on ‘the Troubles’ with the goblins). Alexandra said little, partly because she was setting to with some abandon but mostly because she wasn’t eager to discuss her own business. Hannah seemed to pick up on this and began doting on Charlie again, who was much more appreciative. Alexandra and Charlie headed back to her room and turned in shortly after finishing her dinner. 

*****

Despite the excellent accommodations and her weariness, Alexandra tossed and turned for a long time. Her thoughts kept straying back to Larkin Mills, to Charmbridge, and to the Ozarks where she supposed her friends must shortly be meeting for the Jubilee. She had bitterly regretted cancelling her trip there when her first correspondence had arrived from Hogwarts, but the administration had been adamant about their schedule. With every magical school in America refusing her admission, Alexandra had been forced to weigh the costs and benefits of the potential information the Grannies offered versus access to one of the oldest magical schools in the world. Even her friends had ultimately agreed that she could not turn down her opportunity in Britain but she still hadn’t gotten over the disappointment of learning that she would never return to school with her friends at Charmbridge. Now that she had placed an ocean between herself and them, the separation felt even more painful and somehow irrevocable. 

And then there was Brian. As she had been rejected from one American Magic School after another she had begun to feel that more time with him would at least be consolation for being ejected from the Wizarding World. When she and Livia had first reached out to Hogwarts Alexandra had not expected to have any luck, despite Medea’s prediction that she would be welcome there. When they had received the first tentative letters back, Alexandra had been too excited to consider what it would mean for her relationship. When confirmation had finally come that Alexandra would be attending Hogwarts, the realization that this would mean at least a year away from Brian took some of the joy out of the news. She had put off that conversation for far too long. Although she had mentioned the possibility of going overseas before then, Brian did not pry and it was not until the week before her departure that Alex had had a serious conversation with Brian about where she was going. 

She had begun gravely determined, but became apologetic and even a bit pleading while Brian, for his part, had taken the whole thing with infuriating stoicism. She had been ready for him to ask her to stay, or to be angry at her and had answers ready for either contingency, but he had been infuriatingly reasonable and compliant throughout. By the end of the conversation she had wanted him to ask her to stay and had been unsure what her answer would have been had he done so. But he had just nodded and accepted everything she was telling him. As he left she had kissed him like it was the last time and he had returned the kiss, but in the week since then she had heard nothing and she had never gathered the will to reach out. She still felt that she didn’t know if it was over.

Hours after she turned in for the night, Alexandra found herself composing letters in her head. To Claudia, Anna and Julia, but mostly to Brian. Letters where she told him he should see other people. Letters where she apologized and told him she would write every week. A letter where she told him she maybe loved him. More than once she almost stood up and put pen to parchment before glancing at her the clock on her bedside table and furiously trying once again to sleep. It was long past midnight when she finally drifted off.


	3. The Order of the Phoenix

It was nearly eleven in the morning before Alexandra awoke and nearly noon before she successfully hauled herself out of bed. She might have stayed longer but the pestering of a restless Charlie ultimately compelled her to leave the warm cocoon of her covers.

The tiny lingering blaze was hardly visible in the fireplace, as though the fire sensed that it was not needed in the warmth of near-mid-day, and the room was dim when Alexandra finally rose. She blinked at the sudden brightness and the noise of cars as she opened the magically-shielded blinds and looked out onto the muggle street.

Charlie flapped eagerly about the room. "Fly, Fly!"

"Alright, alright I'll let you out Bird-Brain."

"Lazy!"

Alexandra grumbled as she groped for the latch and let Charlie out onto the window sill. She briefly wondered if the muggles on the street could see this. Looking with her Witch's sight she detected some subtle and skillfully-cast muggle-repelling charms on the Leaky Cauldron's storefront.

"Okay, stretch your wings Charlie." she sighed, "Don't go too far, alright?"

"Careful." Charlie playfully pecked at her fingers before taking off.

For a minute Alexandra followed Charlie's progress through their link as he gained altitude. It was a beautiful August day and the sights of Muggle London were spreading out before her familiar's eyes.  
Alexandra sighed and picked up her yew wand from the bedside table as she headed for the shower.

*****

Alexandra quickly dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and her Seven-League Boots and threw a robe over top as she made her way downstairs. The lunch rush had started by the time she got down to the Dining Room. 

Business seemed better than the previous night, though the spacious pub was still only half-full. Most of the clientele were wizards and witches dressed in traditional robes and hats not unlike those of Old and New Colonials in the Confederation. There were a handful of humans in muggle garb as well as a scattering of other beings. Alexandra saw a pair of dwarves seated at the bar and a group of what looked like House Elves dressed in identical workman’s coveralls seated at a smaller table near the door where they shared a platter of mushrooms. Hannah Longbottom was standing behind the bar, manning a till while using her wand to hover the various dishes emerging from the kitchen behind her out to the tables in the dining room.

"Good morning Alexandra!" Mrs. Longbottom said as Alexandra made her way down the stairs, beckoning her to a nearby seat at the bar.

"'Alex' is fine Mrs. Longbottom." Alexandra smiled somewhat blearily at the landlady as she sat down. "Hate to ask, but is there any breakfast left?"

"'Hannah' is fine Alex." Hannah replied. "And never fear: I saved you something." A wave of her wand brought a heaping plate flying in from the kitchen to skid to a halt in front of Alexandra without spilling a single hash brown.

"Where's that charming raven of yours?" Hannah asked as Alexandra dug in.

"Charlie's out stretching his wings." she replied, "He was cooped up for so long on the plane, you know."

"Ah of course, infernal machines, those aeroplanes." Hannah shook her head. "I only ever got on one once to go to France for my Dad's wedding and I swear if it weren't for the channel tunnel I would have swum back rather than get back on one."

"Yeah, Charlie's not a fan of them either, but even Governor-General Hucksteen couldn't keep me off a muggle plane so here we are." Alexandra shrugged.

Hannah frowned. "Neville told me about that. It's not right, going after you for what your father's done. Even after the war we didn't go after Death Eater's families and, believe me, there were those as wanted to."

Alexandra didn’t reply, uncomfortable with the implied comparison. Instead, she took another mouthful of her breakfast and another glance around the bar-room. Many of the witches and wizards looked to be workers on their lunch break. She saw a table of two wizards and one witch wearing uniform navy-blue robes and one couple she had taken for wizards in muggle attire proved on closer inspection to actually be wearing bright orange t-shirts with ‘Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes’ emblazoned in purple on the back. A third group consisted of two witches and two wizards wearing robes in a variety of colors and styles, but each bearing a badge of a golden bird spreading its wings on a deep red background on their breast. 

“Oh, and Neville wanted me to let you know.” Hannah’s voice distracted Alexandra from surveying the guests, “Your appointment at the Ministry has been scheduled for tomorrow, 10 AM. He had to be at Hogwarts today but he said he’d be here to take you to the Ministry tomorrow morning.”

Alexandra nodded. “Great, maybe I’ll pick up some school supplies today, then. I got a list from the school.”

Hannah shook her head. “Oh no Alex. I thought Neville told you, you shouldn’t wander around-” she was interrupted by the sound of some commotion in the dining room behind Alex. “-Oh for Merlin’s sake put those away!”

Alexandra turned, the yew wand already in her hand, to see that the four guests with the badges had stood up and several had drawn their wands. All were looking towards the exit to the Leaky Cauldron’s courtyard, where Alexandra could see two goblins had just entered. 

The pair were around four feet in height, greenish brown-skinned and wore beards. Both were dressed like the Gringotts goblins Alexandra had seen in the New World- in an outfit similar to a muggle business suit. They were now eyeing the four humans warily, though they were standing their ground even as one of the witches pointed her wand directly at them.

Hannah called out again, “Put those away this instant! You have no right to threaten my guests!”

One of the wizards- a man in his late twenties with light brown hair- pointed at the goblins. “You’d let them just walk in here and order drinks? Are you mad? There have been two attacks in the past month! You’re risking the lives of all your other guests!”

“Neither of these fellows ever attacked no one that I know of and you lot have no business telling me off in my own pub, Julian! Now you point that stick somewhere else!” Hannah pointed at the blonde witch with her wand out who ignored her, continuing to glare at the goblins.

Julian raised a placating hand towards Hannah. “Listen, Hannah, please be reasonable. Maybe these two haven’t done anything but we can’t take chances these days. Look-” he gestured at Alexandra. “-there is a child here…”

Alexandra bristled. “Leave me out of this, asshole!” she snapped.

The man looked taken aback, whether at her american accent, her vulgarity, or because he had just realized that the ‘child’ had had a wand pointed at him for the past minute. He put his hand on the blonde’s shoulder. “Wanda…”

Wanda looked over her shoulder and swore as she saw Alexandra. Alexandra saw fear and rage on the other woman’s face as she spun, aiming her wand.

“Wanda, don’t-” Julian backed away.

‘ _Protego!_ ’ Alexandra shouted, raising the yew wand as Wanda launched a hex at her. She felt the yew wand answer her invocation in its usual spiteful way as a wave of concussive force emanated from Alexandra, deflecting Wanda’s curse and sending her, her three friends and the two goblins stumbling. Wanda’s curse rebounded and struck one of her friends, who cried out as a painful welt appeared on his face where he was hit. Alexandra was knocked off her stool by the backlash and fell to the floor.

Hannah had been staggered slightly by the edge of the blast but was now brandishing her own wand at the four humans.

“All of you, get out of my bar or I will call the real aurors.” Her face was livid, her voice icy, but her aim and her grip on her wand were impressively steady.

Wanda was glaring at Hannah now, but Julian stood between the two women, holding his hands up. “We’re leaving and don’t worry we won’t be back.” He glared at Alexandra. “This one’s like to knock the place down before the goblins even get the chance. Either way don’t call on the Order for help.”

Hannah just pointed at the exit. Alexandra saw Wanda glaring at her as the four made their way out.

Hannah turned to the mess created by Alexandra’s shield charm and made a sweeping gesture with her wand. After a few practiced charms no evidence of the confrontation remained. She sighed as she turned to the two goblins. “The usual, Hardnuk?”

Alexandra picked herself off the floor and pocketed her wand again while the goblins found seats and placed their orders, Hannah wearily took her seat behind the bar again, looking tired and deflated as she resumed ferrying dishes from the kitchen to the dining room with her wand.

Alexandra took her seat opposite Hannah again. “Who were they?”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “The Order of the Phoenix.”

That was a name Alexandra actually knew. “Weren’t those the guys who fought V-”

“-They were.” Hannah cut her off. “They closed up shop years ago though. But after Ottery St. Catchpole was attacked last year there were some as started to think that the Ministry couldn’t protect them with the Goblin troubles being what they were. So they all started organizing patrols and watch duties and such in the countryside and before long some bloke had the idea of calling themselves ‘The Order of the Phoenix’ seeing as how the old Order had fought You-Know-Who when the Ministry wouldn’t or couldn’t. At first they stuck to guarding their homes out in the towns and I’m sure they did some good, there was a time last year when any wizards living too far from their kin felt like sitting ducks. But then we had this ruckus with the explosions in Diagon and Knockturn last month and they figured they were needed here as well, so they started setting up patrols in Diagon Alley and guards on the entrances which, since we’re one of those entrances, means they’re hassling my guests.”

She paused to take payment from one of the wizards in navy blue before slumping back in her seat.

“The Ministry just lets them harass people like that?” Alexandra asked.

Hannah sighed. “The Ministry is stretched thin trying to protect everyone as it is. I think a lot of them are grateful that the Order’s taking up some of the slack. Neville says Harry has tried to get the Minister to rein them in but they say there might be an election coming up and the Minister doesn’t want to start a row. And he’s not on the best of terms with Harry in the first place.”

“Wait…you guys know Harry Potter?”

For the first time since the confrontation with the Order, Hannah smiled. “Oh aye, we’re old school chums aren’t we?” Alexandra must have looked skeptical because Hannah laughed and pointed to the wall behind the bar, where Alexandra could see a long row of wizarding photographs were pinned.

Some of these were quite faded, looking decades old, and tended to feature a small, bald wizard as well as an eclectic variety of guests in various forms of traditional wizarding outfit. But there were also a fair number of more recent photos in vivid color, and in these Hannah and her husband featured prominently along with a rotating cast of young wizards and witches, some wearing muggle garb. 

Pinned high up on the wall in clear view was a picture of three wizards and a witch at the same bar Alexandra occupied now. Alexandra recognized a younger Neville Longbottom, his blonde hair longer and less organized than that of his older self. On his right sat a younger Ron Weasley and on his left was a small man whom she knew from pictures in half a dozen history books. The younger Harry Potter (he looked to be in his early twenties to Alexandra) was the shortest of the three in the picture. He wore glasses and had the familiar messy black hair which partially obscured the iconic lightning bolt scar on his forehead. All three of the young wizards in the picture were dressed in the same heavy brown coats over wizard robes that Weasley and Ophilia had worn the day before. Longbottom was wearing a rather goofy grin which likely had something to do with the slightly younger version of Hannah who was standing behind him, leaning against his stool with her arms around his shoulders. As Alexandra watched the picture-Hannah gave picture-Neville a kiss on the cheek, a scene which seemed to repeat every twenty seconds or so.

Hannah had followed Alexandra’s gaze. “That’s the night Neville quit the aurors.” She said with a grin not unlike that of her doppelganger in the photograph. “Back when I was serving for Old Tom. I’d hardly seen any of them since we’d left Hogwarts but naturally when the mead came out we got to talking about old times and well…”

Charming as the story was, at that moment Alexandra was much more interested in hearing about the fact that Professor Longbottom had been an auror and had presumably fought in the war alongside Harry-freaking-Potter than in hearing the precise details of how he had met his wife. On the other hand she was reluctant to do anything to puncture Hannah’s newly restored good humor and she was aware that ‘What did you do in the war?’ wasn’t always a pleasant topic of conversation. She needed to do something useful- her familiar wasn’t the only one feeling restless after the flights the day before- and she bit back her frustration at being confined to the inn for her first day in England.

***** 

After finishing her late breakfast Alexandra excused herself and returned to her room on the third floor. She took some time to unpack- she had not bothered the night before, but it now appeared that she had better get as comfortable as possible since she would be spending much more time in this room than she had expected. 

As she was rummaging through her magical backpack she set aside the copy of Hogwarts: A History that Livia had sent her when they had received her acceptance letter. After unpacking her clothes, Julia’s magic mirror and the small collection of cosmetics and jewelry she owned, she sat down by her window to read.

Concentrating was difficult with the feelings of warm summer sunlight on black wing feathers and the rush of an eastern breeze that were transmitted to her through her link to her familiar. Through Charlie’s eyes she saw the sweep of the Thames and caught glimpses of parks, venerable old buildings and crowds and crowds of people. The impressions conveyed by Charlie did nothing to relieve Alexandra’s frustration or growing boredom, making her room seem even more stuffy and claustrophobic and her confinement even more unreasonable.

An hour after returning from breakfast, as she was searching with increasing frustration for any explanation of how students were sorted into houses or why a hat would be involved, Alexandra felt more than heard Charlie alighting on her window sill. As she opened the window to let her familiar in she took a long look out at the bustling muggle street bright in the midday sun.

_Screw this._

She had been given clear instructions not to wander into Diagon Alley, but she had heard nothing on the subject of Muggle London.

_It’s not like the goblins are at war with the muggles right?_

Despite the soundness of her logic, Alexandra sent Charlie down the stairwell to ensure that Hannah had momentarily retreated to the kitchen and out of line of sight of the staircase before slipping down the stairs and out onto Charing Cross Road.

*****

Charlie had reconnoitered the surrounding streets fairly well during his morning flight. Alexandra had no difficulty making her way to a currency exchange and acquiring what seemed like a decent supply of British Pounds as well as a cheap tourist map and a guide to the transit system. She found a coffee shop with a wireless connection and stepped inside to peruse the map while she sent messages to Claudia, Anna and Livia, letting them know that she had arrived in London safely. She thought of messaging Brian as well, and wrote several versions of the same message before ultimately giving up and turning back to her guide.

Alexandra had done almost no research on Muggle Britain before leaving America, expecting that her time would be spent at a castle in Scotland or some other magical location. She had never had any particular interest in foreign travel either and so what she knew of London was mostly limited to a vague image of Big Ben and some impressions gleaned from half-remembered novels and children’s stories she had read before going to Charmbridge. A quick perusal of the map indicated to her that she may have been underestimating the possibilities of a summer day in the city.

She stepped back out into the street and looked up at Charlie.

“Alright Charlie… point me to the nearest ‘tube’ station.”

*****

Alexandra’s legs were tired, verging on sore by the evening, but it was a good tired. 

Her first several hours had been spent at the London Zoo (her first visit to a non-magical zoo) and after a late lunch there she had made a rough circuit through Hyde and Kensington parks back towards the Houses of Parliament and closed the day with a look at Big Ben before making her way back to the vicinity of the Leaky Cauldron. Halfway through her visit to the zoo it had occurred to her to start making use of her phone camera and she now had some perfectly non-threatening and non-magical tourist photos to send home to Claudia and Archie.

Checking her phone again, she found replies from Claudia and Livia to her messages that morning- saying they were okay and telling her to stay safe and keep in touch. She smiled to herself as she sent along the images from her day in London. She then hesitated before forwarding a selfie of herself next to the komodo dragon cage at the London Zoo with the caption ‘Told you dragons are real.’ to Brian before stepping onto the street and heading back towards the Leaky Cauldron.

As she approached the pub she examined the exterior with her Witch’s Sight. The spellwork on the muggle-repelling charms was of a subtle sort she had not seen in America- allowing muggles to pass by the sidewalk directly in front of the wizard tavern without being warded off. She even saw passing muggles step out of the way of the door as it opened. She wondered how that was done- perhaps the charms had been incorporated into the building from its construction? She knew that most magical buildings in the Confederation in close proximity to muggles-like the Regal Royalty factory in Larkin Mills- had started life as Muggle buildings that had been taken over and enchanted by wizards.

Alexandra had stopped to inspect the boundary of the Leaky Cauldron’s concealment charms when Charlie’s squawk alerted her to two people approaching her on the sidewalk. She turned to face Wanda, the same young blonde witch from that morning, accompanied by an older man, both with wands drawn.

Alexandra immediately reached for the yew wand, only for it to be blasted from her hand as the man’s wand flashed. She turned to run, hoping to outpace them with her Seven-League-Boots, but Wanda caught her with a tripping jinx and before she could recover the two were standing directly over her. The man spoke first.

“Ah, Alexandra Thorn is it? Well that explains a lot.” 

Alexandra saw Wanda’s eyes widen at that, but it was the stranger she focused on.

Wanda’s companion looked to be in his fifties or sixties but was straight-backed and broad-shouldered, standing over six feet tall. He wore a wide-brimmed hat over long steel-grey hair and he had a thick mustache with thicker sideburns. He wore the same phoenix badge as Wanda, pinned to a long coat of a material that looked like dark-brown leather. He smiled at her as she met his eyes.

“It’s Alexandra _Quick_ , jackass. Who the hell are you?” Alexandra retorted.

The old man’s smile didn’t waver as he nodded and tipped his hat, his wand remaining steadily aimed at Alexandra. “Caradoc Dearborn at your service Miss Thorn.”

Alexandra froze, staring at the man. She would have sworn he was as English as Hannah or Professor Longbottom by his accent but could that name possibly be a coincidence? 

Mr. Dearborn’s cocky smile had not moved an inch, but his eyes were locked on her and betrayed not a hint of levity or compassion, or even fear or anger. His gaze was coldly appraising. Alexandra’s fury at the sudden assault boiled in her, but she forced it down under the pressure of that gaze and made herself think as clearly as she could. She looked around to see if anyone had noticed the teenage girl being assaulted in the middle of Charing Cross Road, but they were well within the boundaries of the un-noticeability and muggle-repelling charms she had been inspecting. Even as she watched, two young women split ways to go around the sudden blockage in the sidewalk before walking on in continued conversation, apparently oblivious to the cause of the disturbance. Alexandra felt Charlie circling, preparing to attack, and mentally warned him away- he wouldn’t be much help against two armed adult wizards. Her familiar swooped towards the Leaky Cauldron instead, vanishing through a window left ajar on the second floor.

“Now, Miss Thorn.” Dearborn sank into a crouch, wand at the ready. “What exactly led you to attack my men this morning? And then to wander off into muggle London?”

“Your men attacked me! And it’s none of your business, you’re not an auror!”

“You’re trying to get into Diagon Alley, Miss Thorn, we can’t just allow any little sorceress to waltz in with things blowing up left and right. It’s a _security risk_ you see…”

“I’m not a security risk asshole I have a-”

“Fair enough.” He cut her off. “Then you won’t mind if I have a look at what you’re bringing into Diagon Alley. _Accio!_ ”

Alexandra jumped and cried out in indignation as her wallet, passport, cell phone, tourist guides, room key and some spare change flew out of her pockets and into the man’s hands in a neat bundle. She tried to rise to her feet, forgetting Wanda’s wand pointed at her.

‘ _Petrificus totalis_ ’ the older witch said and Alexandra fell back to the pavement, bruising her shoulder blade on the ground as she was caught in the body bind curse. 

Meanwhile, Dearborn was nonchalantly flipping through Alexandra’s wallet, pulling out the contents willy-nilly and tossing them on the ground around and on top of Alexandra’s frozen body. When he had emptied the wallet he tossed it over his shoulder into traffic and started flipping through her passport.

Alexandra seethed in her stillness and reached out mentally, searching for the core of her yew wand, lying on the ground out of her reach. She couldn’t even attempt a doggerel verse while she was bound like this, and even with its would-be master paralyzed at wand-point mere yards away, the yew wand remained as stubbornly unhelpful as ever.

Damn you, Medea. Alexandra silently cursed her father’s paramour for giving her the useless stick and sending her off on this stupid trip in the first place. Her fury was boiling over again, increasing in direct proportion to her impotence.

“Wanda, does this muggle device look suspicious to you?” The man was holding up Alexandra’s phone.

“It does, Mr. Dearborn.”

“I thought so, better confiscate it for the time being, don’t want any more of those explosives getting through.” Mr. Dearborn slipped Alexandra’s phone into a pocket inside his coat. 

Alexandra’s eyes fixed on the man’s coat, willing the phone to explode and relishing the image of the smug bastard bursting into flames or simply blasted into pulp. But Alexandra’s smart phone disappointingly failed to slay the enemy holding it captive.

Dearborn was inspecting Alexandra’s room key when Alexandra heard the door to the inn open and Charlie flapped out of the Leaky Cauldron with an angry caw. Her head was fixed in place looking away from the door but she heard Professor Longbottom’s angry voice. 

“What are you doing? Let her go now!”

Dearborn glanced towards the doorway, still completely unperturbed. “We caught someone attempting to sneak into Diagon Alley after curfew, the same witch who assaulted our members while they were enjoying their lunch here earlier today I believe, Wanda?”

“That’s correct Mr. Dearborn.” Wanda replied.

Alexandra pictured breaking every bone in the other witch’s body one by one, but like her partner, Wanda was immune to the violence of Alex’s imagination.

Charlie had flown over and landed on the sidewalk next to Alexandra’s head. She could feel concern and a boiling rage that matched her own through her link to her familiar.

She heard footsteps approaching from the Pub’s entrance and Professor Longbottom spoke again. “Get away from her!” Alexandra felt his shadow pass over her as he knelt beside her.

‘ _Finite Incantatem!_ ’ Professor Longbottom whispered.

The curse that held Alex still was lifted. She immediately scrambled away from Wanda and Dearborn and towards where the yew wand lay on the pavement. Now that she could move again she was shaking with rage. She snatched her wand off the pavement and got to her feet to see Professor Longbottom with his back to her, staring at Dearborn. The older wizard was meeting Longbottom’s eyes with the same infuriating equanimity he had shown since he had first appeared. Wanda was looking more nervous, holding her wand at the ready while her eyes flitted between the Professor and Alexandra.

Alexandra felt the incantations of half a dozen curses on the tip of her tongue as she glared at Wanda, silently daring the other witch to try to hex her when she was standing and armed. Only the sight of Professor Longbottom held her in check- she knew that to curse either of the Order of the Phoenix members was to virtually guarantee her expulsion from Hogwarts.

Alexandra swallowed what she could of her anger and turned to Professor Longbottom. “He stole my phone.”

Longbottom frowned at Dearborn “I don’t know who you are, but you will not harm any Hogwarts student again. And you, Miss Hanson.” He looked at Wanda who actually flinched. “I have no authority to give you detention anymore but if you ever draw a wand against one of our guests again then I’ll teach you the difference between real life and the Dueling Club.”

“The Order has the Ministry’s blessing to protect the public from the goblin menace.” Said Dearborn, rising to his feet. “If your inn offers shelter to goblins and Dark Wizards then it is our duty to take an interest. As for who I am, my name is Caradoc Dearborn. You’re Frank and Alice’s boy right? I knew your parents.”

Longbottom went very still. Dearborn continued to meet his gaze calmly. Both of their wands were still in their hands, albeit pointed at the ground in a neutral position.

Dearborn continued. “They’re rolling in their graves to see their son playing butler to this sorceress.”

Longbottom was silent for a moment before he replied. “You know even less about my parents than you do about sorcery.”

Dearborn laughed aloud. “You have nothing to teach me of Dark Magic, boy. And that warlock’s spawn you’re guarding-”

Longbottom cut him off. “The last person to call me ‘boy’ was Lord Voldemort, Mr. Dearborn. And if you ever threaten a Hogwarts student again you will learn exactly how I deal with Dark Wizards.”

Then he turned away from Dearborn and looked down at Alexandra “Are you hurt?”

Alexandra, still breathing heavily, shook her head. “He still has my phone.”

Longbottom turned and met Dearborn’s eyes again.

After a moment, Dearborn reached into his coat pocket and retrieved Alexandra’s cell phone before casually tossing it on the pavement. Alexandra ground her teeth at the sound of the shattering screen. Then Dearborn turned on his heel and walked off down the sidewalk. Wanda followed with a last, nervous glance at Professor Longbottom.

Professor Longbottom picked up the phone off the ground. 

‘ _Reparo._ ’ he muttered, tapping it with his wand before handing the intact phone back to Alex. He then summoned all of Alex’s scattered belongings back to him with a wave of his wand. The two of them watched as Dearborn and Wanda walked away before they turned a corner and vanished from sight.

“Get inside, Miss Quick.” Professor Longbottom said, gesturing towards the door.


	4. A Quiet Night

Charlie perched on Alexandra’s shoulder as she followed Professor Longbottom into the pub. The Leaky Cauldron was crowded with dinner guests and Hannah was back in her position at the bar. She gave Alexandra a worried look as her husband led Alexandra wordlessly through the dining room, down a side hallway and through a door. 

Inside was a comfortable private room with several armchairs and a roaring fireplace. Professor Longbottom gestured for Alexandra to take a seat and she did, letting Charlie settle on the seat back while Longbottom closed the door. 

She was still fuming, images of revenge she could have taken on Wanda and Dearborn playing out in her mind as she stared directly into the roaring fire.

“Are you alright Alexandra?” the Professor asked gently, “You aren’t hurt?”

“No!” she snapped. It sounded petulant even to her, but she didn’t want to stop being angry and she suspected that Longbottom’s sympathy was just a prelude to scolding her for leaving the tavern. 

She stood up and paced around the room, the yew wand still in her hand, “How the hell can they do that? Just… mugging me in the street?”

“They can’t.” Professor Longbottom answered calmly. “Standing watch around Diagon Alley was one thing but they…” he paused with a small frown, “the ‘Order’ has never threatened or attacked anyone here before. I’m going to be speaking to Harry, he needs to know about this. I’ll see what we can do about this… Dearborn person. Do you know him? He seemed to have it out for you in particular.”

“No I-” Alexandra paused. “-I’ve never met him before. Or heard the name Caradoc Dearborn.” All that was true. She looked up at Longbottom. “You don’t know who he is? He said he knew your parents.”

Longbottom shook his head. “No idea. My parents…” he let out a long sigh and it was his turn to gaze into the fire. “They were both in the Order of the Phoenix- the real one- in the first war. After Voldemort disappeared the first time, some of his supporters kidnapped them, tortured them until they went mad. I was two years old at the time so they didn’t get the chance to tell me about any old friends.”

Alexandra abruptly stopped pacing and stared at Longbottom in stunned silence, her fury abated as she tried to process the Professor’s words.

Longbottom looked deflated as he sank into one of the armchairs. “If this Dearborn fellow was in the first Order then he may have known them, but if so he didn’t stick around for the second war. I know all the Order from that war personally. The ones that survived at least.”

Longbottom turned back to Alexandra who was still staring at him.

“I’m sorry.” she said.

He shrugged. “I don’t talk about it often but pretty much everyone in Britain knows the story, it could be awkward if you didn’t.” He turned back to the fire. “Anyways all the people who did that are long dead and good riddance.”

Alexandra sat back down. After a while Longbottom spoke again. “Can we talk about why you left the Leaky Cauldron today?”

Alexandra sighed. “I just needed to get outside after that flight. You said I shouldn’t go into Diagon Alley so I took a look around the city.”

Longbottom snorted. “Right, I suppose you followed the letter of my instructions so let me be clear now: You are not to leave the Leaky Cauldron again without me or some other Hogwarts staff member watching over you. I told you before it isn’t safe, I hope you see that now.”

Alexandra frowned at him. “The only times I’ve been in danger since I landed have been at the Leaky Cauldron. That Wanda woman threw a hex at me while I was here eating breakfast! And then I walked over half of London and nobody bothered me but as soon as I got back here I was attacked right outside your door!”

“And because you were here, we were able to protect you. Look, I don’t pretend that I predicted this nonsense with the Order when we planned for you to stay here, but it just goes to show these are dangerous times. You could have been attacked by goblins looking to take your wand, it’s happened more than once, even in the middle of the Muggle world.”

“They can take the damn thing.” Alex grumbled, glaring at the Yew wand in her hand. She turned back to Longbottom. “Look, Professor I’ve had people trying to murder me since I was eleven years old, and adults have been saying they’ll protect me almost as long. But it’s always me who ends up having to deal with it.”

“Who’s been trying to kill you?” Asked Longbottom, surprised.

Alexandra shrugged. “Lots of people, half the time I can’t even keep track of who it is this time or why. But they all have one thing in common- they’re dead now and I’m not.” her voice was angry, but she could feel a lump forming in her throat as she thought of Darla, and Mary and now this stranger with the same name. She tried not to choke as she finished. “I can take care of myself, I’m the only one who can.”

“Like you took care of Wanda and Mr. Dearborn outside?” Longbottom spoke up over her sputtered retort. “Alexandra, you’re right, I don’t know what you’ve been through in America. But I know something about danger. When I was your age my friends and I were fighting Death Eaters. I spent half of my seventh year at Hogwarts being used as target practice for the Cruciatus curse and the other half hiding out with other students while the Death Eaters hunted for us. But none of that will save me if enough Dark Wizards take me by surprise in an alley. When the goblins attacked Hogwarts I drank the wrong pumpkin juice and slept through the whole thing like the rest of the staff. So let me tell you that however tough you think you are, you’re no more invincible than I am. Now you’re a clever girl so let me say this with no room for loopholes: you are not to leave the Leaky Cauldron without my supervision or the supervision of another Hogwarts staff member until the day you get on board the Hogwarts Express. If you cannot follow this rule tell me now and we can book your portkey home because you will not be able to study at Hogwarts.”

He said it all very calmly and firmly, without evident anger. She found that made it worse. Looking back, she couldn’t even say why she had left other than boredom. Whether she was truly in danger out in London or not, she couldn’t afford to risk being sent back to Larkin Mills.

“I understand. It won’t happen again.” Alexandra looked down at the yew wand in her hands again. “I will need a new wand. My old one was destroyed when Charmbridge was attacked and this one isn’t properly paired to me.”

Neville nodded. “We can get you a wand in Diagon Alley after the meeting at the Ministry tomorrow. I can’t make any promises for finding a wand, though, there’s a shortage with SCOURGE stealing them left and right. We should be able to get whatever books you need as well. If you can keep yourself busy revising for the equivalency examinations hopefully you won’t feel so cooped up.” 

He sighed. “I don’t enjoy bossing you around Alexandra. I hate that it isn’t safe to walk around Magical Britain right now and I’m sorry that you’ve been troubled by it even here, but I need to do what I can to protect you and other students. I truly hope you’ll be able to find a safe home at Hogwarts.”

Alexandra nodded again in resignation.

“You’re sure you’re not hurt?” Longbottom asked.

Alexandra stood up and stretched. “Just a little bruised. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Go get some dinner then. I’ve got some work to do but I’ll see you tomorrow morning in the dining room.”

“Yes, Professor.” Alexandra picked up Charlie on her way out the door.

Hannah still looked worried when Alexandra sat down at the bar. But this was a rare busy evening at the Leaky Cauldron and the proprietress didn’t have time to do more than ask if Alexandra was alright and summon a fresh-roasted chicken dinner from the kitchen before moving away to take an order from a table full of young wizards in the orange-and-purple livery of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Alexandra ate quietly and kept to herself, feeding occasional morsels to Charlie who was also unusually subdued. 

She hadn’t been entirely truthful to Professor Longbottom- not all of her enemies were dead. John Manuelito, whom she had mistakenly blamed for the attempts on her life the previous year, had turned out to be innocent of those particular murder attempts. She still hadn’t identified the mysterious nemesis who had attacked her and her friends and manipulated Mary Dearborn the previous year.

Whoever the hell Caradoc Dearborn was, he clearly knew about Alexandra’s parentage and it seemed more likely than not that was why he was targeting her. But why would a British wizard know Abraham Thorn’s daughter by sight? Or care about her staying at the Leaky Cauldron? Was her unknown nemesis somehow reaching out to target her again so far from home? Was Dearborn connected to Darla and determined to avenge her as Mary Dearborn had been the previous year? Or did he have his own ax to grind, something Alexandra couldn’t even know yet?

Alexandra was still pondering these questions as she said ‘good night’ to Hannah and headed for the staircase with Charlie on her shoulder. As she passed the entranceway she again surveyed the tavern’s protective spells with her Witch’s Sight. The wards that she had watched Auror Weasley erect the previous day looked strong and intact to her untrained eye and she was slightly reassured as she made her way up to her room and went to bed early.

******

A raucous cry from Charlie startled Alexandra awake. She was lying in the comfortable four-poster in her room. The magical fire was burning low, barely an ember, casting only a hint of red light over the lush bedding and oak furniture. Even as her conscious mind was stumbling over the still-unfamiliar surroundings, Alexandra’s hand had found the Yew wand and she bolted upright, looking for the source of the alert.

In the dim light she could see three figures, hunched in the corner of the room near where she had thrown her jeans and t-shirt before climbing into bed. They were small, though the flickering embers projected much larger shadows on the wall behind them. Without a thought she was bringing her wand to bear, ready to hex first and ask questions later.

Then one of the figures spoke words in a harsh language she did not know and she heard nothing more.

Through her bond to Charlie she could feel that the raven was still screaming, but none of the racket reached her ears. The three figures leapt into action, one of them raising a wand in her direction while the other two charged at her soundlessly with a loping quadrupedal gait. She heard nothing, as though she were watching a television on mute. She could not hear her own heartbeat, though she felt it hammering in her chest, nor the rushed intake of breath as she aimed the yew wand at the closest of the creatures.

‘ _Revulsio!_ ’ Alexandra tried to shout as the figure reached for her. 

No sound emerged but she felt power coursing through her arm and to her wand nonetheless. Just as a clawed hand was about to close on Alexandra’s outstretched arm, both she and her attacker were hurled apart by an invisible force. Alexandra tucked her head under her arms as she was thrown off the bed away from the intruders, rolling when she hit the floor. The small figure struck the opposite wall, hard, and crumpled to the ground noiselessly.

Even as Alexandra attempted to stagger to her feet the second figure was upon her. The small creature leapt off the bed and onto her, bearing her to the ground with surprising strength. She desperately tried to angle the yew wand to hex her attacker but a hand gripped her wand arm and twisted. Her cry of pain was swallowed by the magical silence of the room as her wand fell from her grip. 

Heedless of the pain, Alexandra bucked, trying to hurl the smaller creature off of her by brute force. But even as it kept a grip on her wand arm with one hand, Alexandra saw the firelight flash on bare metal in her attacker’s right hand. She went very still when she felt cold steel at her throat.

The sudden pause made Alexandra realize how exposed she was. She was sprawled on the floor in front of the fireplace, wearing only a tank-top and underwear, with the creature’s weight bearing down on her torso. In the fire’s glow she could make out the rough, craggy features and long nose of a goblin, it’s sharp-pointed teeth glinting as it leered down at her. It held a gleaming, cruelly curved dagger to her throat. As she watched, not daring to move with the edge of the blade rasping against her windpipe, the goblin released her wand arm and reached for her discarded yew wand, tucking it into a bandoleer the creature wore over a thick leather jerkin.

Movement drew her eye away from her captor as she looked at the other two goblins. One was still standing, holding a wand pointed at Alexandra. The third goblin, the one she had smashed into the wall with her hex, was lying in a heap on the floor. Both were wearing the same leather garb as the goblin that had her pinned, and in the dim firelight she could make out a knife belted at the waist of the wand-wielder.

She focused, viewing the scene with her Witch’s Sight. She could see the silencing enchantment in the air, coursing from the goblin’s wand and ebbing and flowing around her and each of the goblins, their movements and the rhythm of their breath causing small disturbances in the enchantment before being drowned in the magical silence. This was no wizard’s silencing charm, and Alexandra thought that if she could deal with the wand-wielder it might disrupt the enchantment enough to call for help.

But underneath the goblin’s enchantment she could see the room itself. At a glance she saw charms in the air, on the curtains, the window, on each individual piece of oaken furniture.

And on the fire.

The charms on the fireplace were connected to the atmospheric charms in subtle ways she couldn’t quite decipher- they responded to the temperature of the room like a magical thermostat and in the warmth of a summer night they were barely active, emitting only dim light and less heat.

As she watched, the goblin with the wand turned away from her, prodding its unconscious ally with its foot. The other goblin began to stir. Apparently satisfied, the goblin turned towards her, raising the wand as it did so. It made an odd movement of its’ free hand, which Alexandra saw answered by the goblin pinning her down.

She doubted doggerel verse was an option without a voice, and even if it would work her throat would be slit before she could finish a rhyming couplet. But in her long months of solitary, wandless practice at the Regal Royalty factory she had learned that Doggerel Verse truly was a crutch. Before she had known proper magical theory it had been an interface that had allowed her to call on forces she did not truly understand, but the effects had always been unreliable and unpredictable, when there was any effect at all.

But she understood those forces _now_. Or at least, she thought she did.

Alexandra squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on arithmantic symbols in her mind’s eye. She felt the power latent in the charms woven around her and as she felt them she saw them as well, adding them to the formula she was crafting in her mind.

As she wove her charm together, her rage grew. This was the third assault she’d endured in a single day and she had no more idea what these goblins had against her than she did about Caradoc Dearborn or his stupid Order. What she did know was that there was no one here to save her this time.

And no one to hold her back.

She opened her eyes and the room was bathed in a green glow. She saw that the goblin holding her had turned away for a moment as the wand-wielder held out an object she couldn’t see towards him.

 _Big mistake_.

She had the charm in her mind, worked out in the painstaking detail that wandless magic required. As the goblin’s head snapped around towards her in alarm she poured all her rage into that formula and worked her will. The low embers of the fireplace burst to life and a green inferno exploded into the room. Alexandra shaped it with her mind and a stream of emerald fire coursed directly into the face of the goblin holding her down.

The goblin recoiled and Alexandra felt the knife at her throat withdraw. She reached up and caught the goblin’s arm as he tried to bring the knife back down to stab at her, barely stopping it. The goblin was much stronger than her, but pain and shock had distracted it enough for Alexandra to get a firm grip and avoid impalement. She felt the heat above her but the green flames found no purchase on her flesh. The goblin writhed in her grip and amidst the blaze she could see the green skin of its face as it blistered and ignited. It’s mouth opened in a silent scream of pain.

Alexandra matched it with a cry of her own as she poured even more of her magic into the fire and directed it down the goblin’s open throat. The silence spell swallowed her enraged shout as it had her victim’s screams. She felt the strength of the goblin’s arm slacken as it withdrew its hands in a futile effort to protect its face. The dagger fell to the floor beside her, forgotten as the goblin reached for its mouth and throat and slumped down on top of her, its struggles weakening even as the brightness of the flames began to subside.

Alexandra grunted silently as she shoved the goblin off of her. But as she struggled to her feet, she saw the second goblin cowering behind her four-poster bed. One arm was raised to shield its face, but she could see that its other hand still gripped a wand. It raised the wand to curse her, the green firelight turning its face into a mask of fear and rage.

Alexandra summoned the fire again, sending the green blaze flying at the second goblin. Even as she worked the spell she could feel her strength draining away, the wandless magic taking its toll on her physically and magically. But the goblin raised its wand and the fire parted around it. With another flick of the wand the fireplace dimmed and sputtered out. The room was lit only by the dim glow of Alexandra’s gaze.

Alexandra staggered as the fire was extinguished. The room felt like an oven, the heat of the enchanted flames bearing down on her like a weight as she struggled to catch her breath. The goblin seemed less affected, turning its wand upon her again with a glint of triumph in its eyes.

Alexandra dropped to the floor as she felt a curse fly over her head, barely missing her and striking the wall. Frantically, she looked around with her Witch’s Sight. She found the locking charm on Charlie’s cage and with a tiny magical effort that drained her even still she flicked it open and Charlie flew straight at the goblin. The goblin staggered back as the raven struck at its face with his talons and their shadows, larger than life in the dim green light, danced across the walls.

Her strength ebbing badly, still struggling to breathe in the heat of the room, Alexandra crawled across the floor towards the fight on her hands and knees. Her hand brushed against something hard and she found herself gripping the first goblin’s knife, discarded on the carpet. She could hear nothing and see little of the struggle between goblin and bird but as she staggered forward she felt a sudden spike of fear and pain from her familiar and the shadows flew apart ahead of her. For a brief moment she could see the goblin clearly, aiming its wand at Charlie as the bird retreated.

Alexandra did not hesitate, lunging towards the goblin with another silent scream of rage. The goblin turned and tried to bring its wand to bear too late as the witch plunged the blade into the goblin.

Even as she bore it to the ground under her, the goblin struggled, scrambling to bring its wand to bear just as Alexandra had against its companion. Alexandra gripped its arm and, screaming, ripped the knife free and stabbed again. And again. She was past mercy. She was even past anger. All she knew in that moment was darkness and silence and fatigue and aching muscles and gasping for the next breath even as she screamed more. She felt nothing more than a desire that the goblin stop moving. She felt the arm go limp as she pulled the knife back a fourth time and she looked in the goblin’s face. Its eyes were wide, unfocused. She saw blood flecked on its lips as it seemed to gasp for breath.

The goblin shuddered and bucked and, with a final scream, Alexandra drove the knife into its torso, driving the blade in with all her weight. Her eyes blazed again and for a moment the room was lit with a flash of green but the light soon dimmed almost to nothing and she was plunged into darkness.

The first thing she heard was her breath, then an inquisitive squawk from Charlie. The sound of her familiar brought her to her senses, she couldn’t say whether she had passed out. In the unreal pitch black of the room and a haze of exhaustion she could hardly tell the difference between sleeping and waking. The room was beginning to cool though it still felt like an oven, but less pleasant than the dry heat of the air was the warm dampness she felt all along her front, on her hands most of all. She could feel the limp form of the goblin beneath her. It too was warm, but beginning to cool. She groped in the darkness until she found the goblin’s hand and, prying the limp fingers apart she grasped the wand it had carried.

She felt an electric thrill down her arm, like she had not felt since she first held her Chimera hair wand in the Goblin Market years before. She could feel the vibrations of the wand’s core as she never could with the yew wand, and beneath it she felt something else- eagerness, and a fury that matched hers. She knew in a flash that this wand wanted her as much as she wanted it, wanted to be taken and used. To work magic, to take vengeance, to burn, to kill.

Alexandra took a deep breath as she tried to clear her head. Blindly she raised the wand and murmured.

“L… lu- _Lumos._ ”

The tip of the wand blazed to life, illuminating the scene that had been her inn room minutes before. The oaken chair and stool had been knocked over, and her bedding had been slashed in many places in the struggle, presumably by goblin blades. She saw no burn or scorch marks on the walls or any of the furniture, whether because they were protected by the magic of the Leaky Cauldron or by her own magic she could not say. 

She saw the goblin she had smashed into the wall, still lying in a heap next to the doorway. He did not stir as she glanced over him. By the fireplace she saw the other goblin. It’s face was unrecognizable under a mass of burns and she could see in the silver light where the leather of its clothing had melted into its flesh. It did not move either, not even the rise and fall of breath.

Alexandra paused, and drew a deep breath, before looking down at herself, and the goblin crumpled at her feet. 

She was drenched in red from her neck to her knees. The blood was soaked through her top and splattered over the bare skin of her legs and shoulders. Her wand hand, which had held the knife, was warm, and she could feel it sticking to the wand. The goblin was similarly drenched, his jerkin punctured in many places, and the knife stuck hilt-deep between his ribs. His face was oddly coloured, more yellow than green and his short, wiry beard was flecked with blood as well. His eyes were wide and stared vacantly back at Alexandra. 

She let out a breath slowly. She heard Charlie flutter over to land on the toppled furniture next to her but she just stared down at the goblin’s face cast in stark relief in the wandlight. She couldn’t quite believe that she had done this. The goblin she had burned felt more real somehow- she remembered her rage, the intention and the feeling of the magic. The blood on her hands and the memory of desperately stabbing into the darkness again and again felt different, like something that had happened to her rather than something she had done. She knew she should call for help, but this knowledge warred with an urge to hide. To bury the bodies away somewhere no one could ever find them and scrub herself with soap and spells until nothing showed of what had just happened.

A cry from Charlie startled Alexandra out of her ruminations. She caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye before she heard a deafening bang.

She looked around, raising her wand but an instant later she heard a second bang and the next thing she knew she was hitting the floor. 

There was another bang, and another. The ringing in her ears drowned out any other sound. At first she felt only the impact of her back hitting the floor, it was only as she tried to rise that she felt the burning pain exploding from her stomach. She screamed and she was nearly blinded as the wand, still clutched in her hand, blazed like a beacon before dimming and flickering. She put her hand to her stomach and felt new, warm blood flowing- her own this time.

She saw the goblin, the one she had hurled into the wall, shakily rising to its feet. The collision with the wall had raised a swollen, brownish-red mass on its right temple.

She only understood what had happened when she saw the revolver smoking in the goblin’s hand.

Alexandra tried to rise again, darkness closed in on the edges of her vision and she fell back to the ground. Her hands were numb and cold and she barely kept her grip on the wand.

The goblin saw her movement and snarled, showing its fangs. Dropping the gun, it reached for its belt and drew out a curved knife, shining in the wand light. It started towards her, its face a mask of fury.

Alexandra kicked out with her legs, trying to push herself away from the approaching goblin, but every movement of her legs made the agony in her stomach worse and she barely moved.

Then the goblin was above her, raising the knife.

“ _Stupefy!_ ” she gasped. 

There was a flash of red from her wand but the stunner missed, striking the opposite wall, and the knife was coming down when the goblin’s face was engulfed in black feathers. The goblin stumbled and reeled away as Charlie struck at his face, the raven’s cries of anger now clearly audible.

Alexandra was reeling herself, nearly vomiting from pain. Surely someone must have heard the gunshots? Someone was finally coming to save her?

The goblin struck out with its fist, Alexandra felt pain from her familiar as the raven was hurled across the room. As the goblin turned back towards her Alexandra knew no help would come in time. She could feel her hands grow cold as her life faded away, even the pain in her stomach was fading into numbness. She knew no spell to stop the bleeding, no healing magic at all except…

The goblin was coming again, still staggering and with blood leaking from cuts on its face. As it stepped over the fallen chair it lurched drunkenly, steadying itself against the bed with one arm.

Alexandra looked at the wand, still shining in her hand. It pulsed with the same blood lust she had felt when she first held it. As she felt her strength waning she clung to that. She rolled onto her left side, away from the approaching goblin and her hand was somehow steady as she pointed the wand at her own stomach and moved the wand in a widdershins motion.

The goblin had righted itself, cursing in its own language. As she felt its footsteps approaching, Alexandra chanted under her breath, moving her wand in wider motions. The timing would need to be just right.

The footsteps came to a stop behind her and she pushed off, rolling towards the goblin as she raised her wand. She saw the knife coming down in a wide arc, but her wand was faster as she brought it up and thrust it blindly at the goblin. The goblin made a noise of surprise as her wand point struck it in the chest and it staggered backwards, catching itself on the bed post again.

At first the goblin merely snarled but its face suddenly twisted, more in pain than anger. It stepped towards her but paused. The hand not clutching a knife moved to its chest. Alexandra could see blood already beginning to soak through the creature’s shirt from within.

The goblin gave Alexandra a final, puzzled look before it toppled to the ground. 

Alexandra lay there, staring. The burning in her stomach had become an uncomfortable numbness when her wand touched the goblin but darkness was still closing in on the edges of her vision. Still she lay there staring at the goblin- dead or dying she was unsure. She wanted to look away but all she could feel was the cold, a cold that started in her hands and feet and spread inward to every part of her body, a cold she had not felt since returning from the Lands Beyond.


	5. Muffliato

It was nearing five-thirty in the morning when Harry Potter stepped out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. Business had started, despite the hour and the word that had trickled out about a goblin attack. Harry saw Hannah giving orders to a young witch he didn’t know as the first trickle of morning traffic headed to Diagon Alley to start the work day. As the main connection between Diagon Alley and muggle London, the tavern was too vital an artery to be shut down for long. The only signs of the events of the previous night were the harried, distracted look on Hannah’s face and the three wizards in Obliviator’s robes standing around a corner table deep in conversation.

Harry brushed a few heatless green sparks from his robes as he made for the bar. Even as he crossed the room, he felt the ambient noise quiet as people noticed him and faces turned his way. Hannah turned around with a frown as her young employee’s eyes widened, only to let out an amused snort when she saw her celebrity guest.

“Harry, usual cream and sugar?”

Harry smiled, leaning against the bar. “I think strong and black this morning, thank you.”

“Well Maudie, you heard the man.” Hannah pointed the young server towards a steaming pot behind the bar and then glanced around the room. “Ain’t you people got jobs?”

Harry took a seat, his smile fading as the ambient noise resumed its earlier low din. “You and Neville are okay?”

Hannah nodded, her face grim again. “Yeah, we never even saw the blighters until it was all done with. That poor girl though…” she let out a sigh.

Harry frowned “I heard someone was injured, you know who it was?”

Hannah nodded “It was that girl from America, Alexandra-” 

She looked nonplussed as Harry hastily paused her with a raised hand. He gripped his wand and muttered ‘ _Muffliato_ ’ and felt the faint change in air pressure that signified that their conversation was now private.

Hannah raised her eyebrows as Harry spoke. “Alexandra Quick? Where is she? Is she alive?”

“She’s at St. Mungo’s. Neville took her straight there by our emergency Portkey. I don’t know whether she’s…”

Harry didn’t like this. If the girl had been the target, Neville or St. Mungo’s might be in danger. “No one else was hurt?”

Hannah shook her head. “None except, well… I guess the goblins.”

Harry blinked. “The goblins?”

Her voice dropped. “I heard Neville talking to the DMLE blokes. He said, well, they were dead. Three of them in her room.”

“Neville killed them?” Harry asked, surprised.

“No I… I think she did.”

They were quiet for a minute. The server brought Harry his coffee, and he sipped it before continuing.

“Neither of you saw what happened?”

She shook her head “None did except her and the gobs- sorry Harry- and none of them are saying much. First thing we heard was this terrible racket- ‘ _bang! bang! bang!_ ’ from that pistol going off. No word, no cry, no alarms from the wards nothing. Then Nev grabs his wand, tells me to call the Ministry through the floo, and runs off like he’s back in the war again.”

Hannah paused, and let out another deep breath. “By the time he came back those DMLE fellows had arrived. Neville’s got the girl, she’s out cold, covered in blood and white as a ghost. He says she needs St. Mungo’s and there’s three dead goblins in her room, then he rushes off while more men come through the floo and check the whole place. By that time, the guests were rousing and some started to panic. We almost had people hexing each other before Ron arrived and got everyone in order.”

Harry nodded. He’d known that Ron was on the graveyard shift tonight, he assumed he’d find him at the crime scene upstairs.

Hannah went on “Ron told them everything was squared away, and to get back in their rooms and wait for the DMLE to come by and sets them to questioning everyone. Then he called those Obliviators in-” she nodded at the Obfuscation bureau wizards “-and sends that pretty trainee of his off to St. Mungo’s to check on Neville and the girl.”

Harry glanced around the dining room. More wizards and witches were moving through the tavern now. From the bored, sleepy demeanor of most of them, he gathered that some were unaware of the events of the night.

He turned back to Hannah “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She smiled weakly. “Oh just swell. It’s like being a carefree schoolgirl again.” 

They both chortled at that. Harry reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. “Neville’s tough, and so are you. We’ve all survived worse than this.”

Hannah shook her head. “We didn’t all survive it.”

Harry didn’t have a reply to that. “Ron’s checking out the scene, I take it? Which room?”

“Three-oh-four.”

“Great, thanks for the coffee.” Harry turned to leave and paused. “Oh, and Hannah?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t mention the victim’s name to anyone, or what she was doing here. Especially not to any press. It’s for her protection.” 

She nodded and took his mug as he headed for the stairs.

*******

Harry found the hallway leading to room 304 blocked by a translucent wall of red light that offered no resistance to the head of the Auror Office. He paused as he caught a sickening whiff of burnt meat, before he opened the door to inspect the daughter of Thorn’s handiwork.

The first thing he noticed was blood, a lot of it. Harry was far from a stranger to violence, but even he could occasionally be surprised by how much of the stuff was in a person, even a four-foot-tall goblin. It had pooled and seeped into the carpet in the space between the four-poster bed and the cold fireplace. It was thickest around the body of a goblin that was splayed on the floor, his face a pale shade of green under his beard. The handle of a finely-crafted knife was sticking out of his chest. Harry saw more blood around a second goblin, slumped to the ground near one of the bedposts. The creature’s jerkin was almost soaked through.

Looking around the room, Harry saw the source of the odor. A goblin-shaped lump of scorched and blackened flesh was piled near the fireplace. The body was bent and contorted by fire and Harry could see a few places where it had burnt through to the bone.

“Thank Merlin for Atmospheric charms, eh?” Harry heard a familiar voice, though it was oddly muffled. “Would smell a thousand times worse right now if we were anywhere else.”

Harry turned and saw Ron Weasley crouched on the floor. He appeared to be inspecting a large dent in the wattle-and-daub wall at waist level next to the doorway. As Ron stood up, Harry saw that his friend had wisely cast a Bubble-head charm to ensure a supply of clean air while working in the room.

“ _Muffliato_ ” Harry quickly cast, before casting his own bubble-head charm and turning back to the crime scene. “What do we know so far?”

“These three gentlemen entered this room by magical means just before oh-three-fifty this morning. They evaded the Tavern’s wards and used a goblin shrouding charm to conceal the noise of their arrival. On arrival they had a less-than-cordial disagreement with the room’s occupant, one Alexandra Octavia Quick, age fifteen, lately arrived from the American Confederation of Wizards on a student visa to study at Hogwarts.”

Harry surveyed the wreckage. “No one else was here, you’re sure?”

Ron grinned. “We have word that she may have had the assistance of a raven named ‘Charlie.’ Unfortunately, the individual in question appears to have departed the crime scene at some point before our arrival, and we have been unable to interview him.”

Harry knelt to inspect the goblin with the knife sticking out of him. He could now see that there were half a dozen wounds in the goblin’s chest, besides the one with the weapon still embedded.

Ron cleared his throat, and pointed over towards a corner of the room. A tapestry woven with a neutralizing pattern was laid out on the floor, and several items had been placed on it. “I recovered two wands from the scene. One Hannah identified as belonging to Ms. Quick which I found in the possession of Mr. Medium Rare over there. Only spell cast since yesterday was a repulsion jinx.” here Ron gestured in the direction of the crack in the wall. “The second was on the floor near that fellow with the knife sticking out of him. Rosewood, couldn’t identify the core. I believe it was used by one of the goblins, most likely the one it was found near. Recent spells included the aforementioned shrouding charm, an extinguishing charm which seems to have taken out the fireplace, a light charm, a stunner and an as-yet unidentified spell of presumably goblin origin that may have been what sent our victim to St. Mungo’s.”

“Other weapons include three daggers of goblin make, including the one in that fellow’s ribs, and a muggle revolver, now empty, which was discarded on the ground there by your foot.” Ron now pointed towards the exterior wall, where Harry could see the marks from five bullets, none of which had penetrated. “I believe we see where five of the bullets went. The puzzle, however-” Ron pointed at the third goblin, slumped by the bed, “-is how one of them ended up going through that fellow.”

Ron gestured towards the dead goblin with his wand and murmured ‘ _Corporeoptis._ ’ A translucent image of the goblin appeared in the air before them. Ron gestured with his wand again and the image reoriented so that they viewing it from the side. With another incantation from Ron red marks appeared. There was one large one over the right temple, with small cracks visible in the skull radiating out from the impact point, as well as several smaller marks visible inside the skull sketching out the anterior contours of the brain, and an ugly mark tunneling through the chest just below the heart and emerging in the back. There was a diffuse red stain throughout the stomach, presumably internal bleeding from the chest wound.

Ron continued. “From the concussion and skull fracture, I gather that this was the one who got hit with the revulsion jinx.” Ron gestured towards the dent in the interior wall behind them. “This penetrating injury here looks like a bullet wound to me.”

Harry knelt next to the goblin. “Where’s the bullet? And how did it get to his torso without passing through his shirt? There’s no entry wound.” He looked at the goblin’s back, there was no exit wound either.

“Yeah, there’s the rub. I owled the Goblin Liaison Office and they should be sending down an expert to take a second look at this.” Ron picked up the Rosewood wand from where it sat on the tapestry and tapped it with his wand. “ _Prior Incantato._ ” 

A chunk of blackness, like a hole in space, emerged from the tip of the wand. It seemed to move by tearing through the air at its leading edge even as the space behind it was knitted together. It moved through two small circles, like an ouroboros, then vanished.

Ron looked at Harry. “Ringing any bells?”

Harry shook his head. “No idea, might be what tore through that goblin. Maybe she deflected one goblin’s jinx back at another?” He glanced around the room again. “Any idea how they got in here past the wards?”

Ron smiled. “Thought you’d never ask.” He knelt again, where he’d been when Harry found him and pointed to an object on the floor. “Take a look at that but don’t touch it, it’s live.”

Harry looked. Where Ron pointed Harry saw a small iron medallion, pierced through the center and slung on a leather thong. The dull metal was stamped with what looked like goblin runes.

Harry frowned “What is it?”

Ron kept smiling “Can’t you feel it?”

“Not without touching it, no.”

“No, don’t touch it- stretch out with your feelings, young Skywalker. Feel the force flowing through…”

Harry rolled his eyes. “I told Hermione movie night was a bad idea.”

Ron sighed. “It’s a portkey. There, you happy? One of our artificers will be here soon to confirm and try to trace exactly where it goes. The one with the knife on him has an identical amulet on his belt that’s been expended already. As I’m sure you can attest, Apparition wards don’t block portkeys. No one saw them coming, no forced entry and they didn’t trip any alarms because they portkeyed directly into this room.”

Harry was checking the blood-drenched goblin. Sure enough, there was an identical medallion hanging off his belt. “Targeted to this room? Portkeys need to be enchanted at their destination and then moved away manually, or-”

“-or targeted to an object which is then moved to the destination.” Ron finished, grabbing something off the tapestry in the corner and holding it up triumphantly.

Harry looked at it. “Her room key?”

Ron nodded. “The magic is fading now- short lived charm- but I can still catch a whiff of it.”

Harry took the key and inspected it closely. Ever since he’d first held one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, Ron had been insisting that it was possible to ‘feel’ magic (or sometimes smell it). Harry had rarely found that he could feel anything, and to this day Hermione insisted it was some form of confirmation bias, or possibly just Ron having them on. But Ron had been right too many times for there not to be something to it.

As usual, Harry could feel nothing. He handed the key back to Ron.

Ron made a sweeping gesture around the crime scene. “This whole thing looks like a botched hit to me. Or a very badly botched kidnapping. They knew exactly where they were going and who they were after. Planned to portkey in, knock off and/or nick the girl, and portkey out. Only this girl turned out to be a bigger handful than they were expecting.” 

Ron pulled a notepad out of a pocket of his robes and flipped through it. “I sent Ophilia to St. Mungo’s to keep an eye in case there are any follow-up attempts on this girl, and when the Goblin Liaison woman gets here we might be able to get a proper identification on these three, maybe figure out who exactly wanted her so badly. Maybe if she wakes up she can give us some ideas herself.”

Harry sighed. “Yeah, about that. There’s some things you should know about this case that need to stay as private as possible.”

Ron raised an eyebrow. “Well don’t stop there, mate. Spill.”

Harry turned to make sure the door was shut and locked. Then he drew his wand and muttered ‘ _repello vermis_.’ He waited until the insect-repelling golden cloud had spread throughout the room before turning back to Ron. “Alexandra Quick is a pseudonym. The victim’s actual name is Alexandra Thorn.”

Ron looked nonplussed for a second before comprehension dawned. “Thorn… as in Abraham Thorn?” 

Harry nodded. “Yes, she’s his daughter. Reportedly his sixth and youngest, though I’m told even he has trouble keeping track.”

Ron whistled. “Don’t know much about him. Hermione says in America they’re afraid to say his name, like he’s You-Know-Who or something.”

“That’s true.” Harry replied. “Their press just calls him the ‘Enemy of the Confederation’ and refuses to print his name. There’s a fair bit of propaganda on both sides and I can’t really comment on how accurate the comparison is.” He shrugged. “Except to say that he’s apparently luckier with the witches than Tom ever was.”

Ron snorted and looked back at Harry “What’s she doing in Britain?”

Harry rolled his eyes “Apparently Mr. Thorn is an old family friend of the Malfoys. When she applied to Hogwarts as a political refugee fleeing persecution, all Draco’s friends on the Board of Governors felt their hearts melt and approved her admission.”

Ron nodded. “I met this girl and her bird the other day. She was quiet, the raven said more than she did, but she was definitely a bit… intense, I suppose.” He glanced at the goblins again. “Maybe I should have been more polite.”

Harry gave a weary smile. “Really, you? I can’t imagine.” He turned back towards the door. “Keep me updated on this one, reports go directly to me. No mention of the victim’s background to anyone outside the investigation. If it’s known publicly that she’s here it could trigger a diplomatic incident, or maybe just bring in a whole bunch more people trying to kill her. I’m going to St. Mungo’s now, there’s some things I need to ask Neville, and the victim if possible. I'm not trying to take over your investigation, I just need to know what to tell the Minister about this attack. Then I’m going to chat with some people at the Department of International Magical Cooperation and a few other places, see if I can't find any leads for you.”

“Sure thing mate. I need to finish up here and consult with the Goblin Liaison lady anyway. Say ‘hi’ to Ophilia for me.”

Harry stopped, with his hand on the doorknob, and let out a heavy sigh. He heard Ron chuckle as he continued out the door.

******

By the time he stepped out of the fireplace in the lobby of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, it was nearly seven o’clock. The reception area had a moderate crowd that morning, and the mix of visible ailments was as eclectic as usual. Harry nodded at a wizard he recognized from the Department of Magical Transportation who was in the company of a teenage girl with a pained expression and a badly splinched left arm. His gaze passed over a wizard with the face of a golden retriever (Harry recognized the effects of a mis-brewed polyjuice potion), another who appeared to have had all colour drained from his face and hair giving him the disconcerting appearance of a hyper-realistic mannequin, and a man in his twenties who had likely been on the wrong end of a severe hexing judging from the polytechnic boils on his face and the small bats emerging from his nostrils at regular intervals. Finally, he saw the young woman he was looking for standing at the opening of a hallway leading deeper into the hospital.

Ophilia Karait stood near the reception desk surveying the waiting room. Her height, posture and aquiline features gave her an aura of imperious authority that belied her youth as she held her wand ready at her side. She stood straighter still when she saw Harry.

“Mr. Potter! Are you-”

“Any signs of trouble?” Harry stepped past the girl and scanned the hallway as he did so. There was some traffic going up and down the large staircase just past the reception area, but the longer hallway that he knew led to the Greater Healing Chambers had been kept clear. He saw no sign of Neville.

“No, sir.” Ophilia was straightening her hair as he turned back to face her. “Ron-er- Auror Weasley sent me to check on the victim after we arrived on the scene. She’s been taken to one of the Healing Chambers. I was just re-checking the entrance before heading back.”

Harry nodded. “Where’s Neville?”

She pointed “End of this hallway to the right you should see him outside her room.”

“Great. Keep an eye out here, you’re looking sharp.”

“I was just going-” but Harry was already walking. He caught a brief glimpse of her staring after him as he turned the corner. Harry found Neville seated in a wooden chair halfway down the hallway, opposite a closed door.

The young professor was looking more miserable than Harry had seen him in a long time. Neville hadn’t yet changed out of his pyjamas and blood-flecked dressing gown, and he sat by himself with the posture of a man who is both fatigued and agitated, yet has no means to either rest or direct his nervous energy. His right hand rested on his lap, holding his wand, while his left held a paper cup of coffee perched on the arm of his chair.

Neville met Harry’s eyes as the Auror conjured a second chair and took a seat next to his friend. Before pocketing his wand Harry muttered ‘ _Muffliato_ ’ for the third time that morning.

“How is she?”

Neville sighed. “I don’t know, the healer’s still with her. I think they would have told me if she’d died.”

“Was she shot?”

Neville shrugged helplessly. “I thought so. I heard the shots, the pistol was in the goblin’s hand and she was covered in blood. The healer said there was no wound on her, but then he said something about bleeding on the inside and they kicked me out. They knocked her out and now he’s doing something he doesn’t want me there for.”

Harry looked back at the door. “Any idea why three goblins would want to kill her?”

Neville shrugged again. “I dunno, why are goblins killing anyone these days? I assumed they were SCOURGE, trying to attack the Cauldron and picked the wrong room.”

Harry shook his head. “I left Ron at the Cauldron. He thinks they were after her in particular, says it looks like a botched kidnapping.”

“Yeah… ‘botched,’ that’s one word for it. Blimey Harry, what she did to those goblins…” Neville trailed off.

Harry continued. “I got word there was some kind of confrontation with two goblins at the Cauldron yesterday. Could that have anything to do with it?”

"It wasn’t the goblins starting that, it was those bloody so-called Order of the Phoenix harassing our guests.” Neville turned towards Harry, frowning. “I was going to talk to you. They attacked two of our regulars right in the bar just for being goblins, then in the afternoon two of them practically ambushed Alexandra as she was coming in the front door.”

Harry paused. “Wait, what’s this?”

“That’s what I want to know. Remember Wanda Hanson?”

“Not really.”

Neville waved his hand dismissively. “She was in Gryffindor, graduated last year. Chaser. Apparently she’s in ‘The Order’ now. Anyway, she was with the crew that attacked the goblins yesterday and she came back later with this old bastard- Caradoc Dearborn?” Neville raised an eyebrow, continuing when Harry shook his head “Me neither. Anyway they had her in a full body bind and were going through her things by the time I got out there, said they were searching her for bombs or something as if they had the right. I could swear Dearborn was trying to bait me into a duel before I got him to bugger off. When I asked Alexandra, she said she had no idea who this bloke was or why he wanted to sift through her things.”

Harry frowned. “They were searching her things?”

“Yes. Right there on the street! They had her body bound and he was going through her pockets.”

“What did you see him touch?”

Neville looked a bit confused but answered “He took her telephone and threw it on the ground, he emptied her uh… what do they call those, billfold?. He emptied it and tossed it. I summoned them all back.”

“Anything else of hers that you saw him take or touch?”

“Er... yes. When I came out, he was kneeling on the ground and holding her room key.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Yeah, definitely, and it was one of the things I summoned back.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully. “Was there anything they took that she didn’t get back?”

Neville shook his head. “She didn’t mention anything. She did say that people had tried to kill her before.”

Harry nodded again. “That’s true, a few years ago one of her father’s former accomplices tried to kill her, and there were some hushed up rumors about attacks on Charmbridge last year that had something to do with her getting expelled.”

Neville looked back at the closed door. “Merlin, what she did to those goblins though…”

“Neville… are you certain Hogwarts is the place for her?”

Neville’s was silent for a moment. “She’s the victim here.”

“It looks that way, we won’t be sure until the investigation is complete. But this isn’t exactly the first incident on her record. She’s known to have practiced Dark Arts, and she’s been connected to multiple deaths. Two of those were of other students _that I know of_. This was the Confederation, of course, so the details are so murky and secretive that I couldn’t tell you who was at fault but do we really think it’s all an unfortunate coincidence that this girl is dragging three bodies behind her by the time she’s fifteen? And now she’s added three more in one night. You saw that room. I counted six stab wounds in that goblin. I don’t even know precisely what she did to the other two. Is someone who can do that, someone who has done that, someone you want around eleven year-olds? Are you sure that you can keep other students safe?”

Neville turned to look Harry in the eye. “You haven’t talked to her Harry. You haven’t met her. She isn’t some hardened criminal she’s a teenage girl who’s being chased halfway across the world by who knows what and who thinks all the adults that are supposed to protect her have failed. And she’s right, at least about me.”

Neville turned back to face the door. Harry took a deep breath before replying.

“This isn’t your fault Neville.”

“She was attacked three times, under my roof or on my doorstep. Whether it’s my fault or not, damn sure it’s my responsibility.”

Harry was silent for a while. He supposed if he knew an answer for that he would have an easier time sleeping at night as the casualties from goblin attacks continued to trickle in.

After a while Harry stood. “I’m going to get Ophilia to stay here until I can arrange more security for the hospital. I wish we had the manpower to detail a full-trained Auror, but you know Ophilia. She knows her stuff and she’s seen action. Before she leaves hospital we’ll have to work out what we can do after that to guarantee her safety until she gets to Hogwarts. When she wakes up don’t grill her about what happened. It's better if she’s fresh for when Ron questions her. I need to-”

There was a sudden raucous cry in the quiet hallway, and Harry heard the beating of wings and the patter of footsteps as a projectile made of black feathers came hurtling around the corner, followed soon after by Ophilia Karait.

“Mr. Potter, I think that’s-”

“ALEXANDRA!”

A raven hurtled past Harry, only to make a messy landing on the marble floor and rise shakily onto its legs. Harry could see that the raven looked much the worse for wear, with several patches of feathers crumpled, flattened or torn out and others matted with blood- whose blood Harry wasn’t sure.

“ALEXANDRA” the bird croaked again.

“That’s her bird.” Neville spoke. “Charlie… uh calm down it’s going to be alright.”

As the bird ruffled its feathers Ophilia spoke up again. “It just came right through the door after someone else. I almost hexed it before I recognized it as her bird and then it was past me. Should I have-?”

“No, you made the right call.” Harry answered, looking closely at the bird. 

Neville was off his chair and kneeling, trying to coax the wounded raven onto his forearm. “He’s smart, he knew to come get me when she was attacked yesterday.”

“Bird-Brain.” Charlie seemed to appreciate the compliment as he allowed himself to be lifted back up onto Neville’s chair.

“Well, good to see he’s alright.” Ophilia said. “Ron was talking about wanting to question him.”

Neville snorted “How about it Charlie, want to make a statement?”

“They’re dead now, and I’m not.” Charlie spoke, and the words came out in the voice of a teenage girl, angry and defiant.

The hallway was silent for a long moment as the three humans exchanged looks.

“Are ravens even allowed at Hogwarts?” Ophilia asked, as Charlie helped himself to Neville’s cold coffee.


	6. Disclosures

The first thing Alexandra knew was the squeezing sensation of a difficult apparition. She didn’t know where she was, but everything was white and intolerably bright. There was pain like being stabbed in the stomach with a dozen knives at once, knives that twisted with even the slightest movement. She wasn’t the one moving, she was being carried. The person carrying her was gentle, but they were walking and every step sent the pain through her again.

Voices talking, she didn’t understand. A voice she knew saying her name. She was too weak to scream, so she just moaned. 

“-She’s been shot with a muggle firearm, she needs a healer immediately!”

Something in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, and suddenly she was floating unsupported five feet above the ground. The pulses of pain from her stomach abated slightly, as she was no longer being jostled by her bearer’s footsteps. She was vaguely aware of the bright hallway moving past her. She was cold and weak, and she moaned again as her tremors sent more stabs of pain through her.

She felt a warm hand on her bare shoulder, and a masculine voice. The words made no sense except her name, but the tone was reassuring.

The movement stopped and she heard more voices around her. The hand disappeared and she reached for it 

“please...”

There was an incantation and the shreds of clothing she was wearing were gone, Vanished. She cried out in alarm as she felt a strange sensation washing over her, and then she was clean- the dried blood that had caked over her body was gone. Suddenly there was warmth, though only skin deep. In her core she still felt cold.

“Can you tell me your name?”

She blinked, looking around for the one who had comforted her. “Where… Archie?”

Another hand on her shoulder, but a different hand, rougher, squeezing a little painfully. She was looking into a man’s face. Older, bald and clean-shaven she didn’t know him but there was something about his voice... “Kid, I need you to look at me. Can you tell me your name?”

She blinked, the words made little sense to her. She put her hand on her stomach and moaned.

The man shrugged. “Take that as a ‘no’. Does this hurt?” A hand was pressing on her stomach and she screamed. She tried to push the hand away, but she was weak and everything was numb except the agony in her stomach. Then the hand was pulled away and the pain came back again, somehow worse and sharper, along with a wave of nausea. She screamed again and felt bile in her throat.

“What are you-” The first voice, the kinder voice. Her tormentor took no notice, continuing to speak calmly to someone she couldn’t see.

“She’s peritonitic as hell, must be a trauma we didn’t see-”

“She was shot! I told you.” The first voice cut in.

“Please calm down, Professor.” The bald man’s tone was dismissive, he was focused on her, his eyes sweeping over her body. With a movement of his wand he levitated her higher into the air and inspected her backside, muttering to himself all the while.

“No external wounds… bruising to the neck, but breathing fine and moving her legs, the blood wasn’t hers…” He turned his head a fraction “Poggle are there other casualties incoming?”

The other man answered “No, just her. The blood is from-”

“Fantastic. The airway’s intact and she’s breathing but she’s clearly in shock. Poggle, prep a sleep potion 40 kilos dose, no point keeping her awake and in pain if she can’t tell us anything.” The man waved his wand again “ _Corporeoptis._ ”

Alexandra saw… herself. An image of herself was floating in the air in front of her eyes, translucent like a ghost. She briefly thought she must have died and seen her own ghost, before realizing that made no sense and that she still hurt. A lot.

“Free air and at least two liters of fluid in the abdominal cavity, looks like mixed blood and bowel contents. Where’s the perforation...”

A high-pitched voice piped up “Potion is ready.”

“Give it now.”

Suddenly Alexandra was looking into the tennis ball eyes of an elf. “Patient must open wide.” It was holding a flask towards her mouth. Alexandra jerked her head away. “Patient is refusing.”

“Healer’s orders” the bald wizard replied absently. Alexandra saw the ghost version of her rotate as he moved his wand.

At those words, the elf snapped its fingers and Alexandra froze. Then she felt her mouth forced open by invisible hands and the elf was pouring the potion into her mouth.

“Patient will swallow.” Said the elf. Alexandra’s throat moved of its own accord, and then she remembered nothing more for a long while.

******

The first thing she saw was a white ceiling. She spent a few minutes taking it in before a familiar voice caught her attention.

“Alexandra.”

Even as she heard Charlie, she felt him. She turned her head, noticing as she did so that she was lying on a white bed, with white linens, in a white room. Charlie was in his cage, perched on a white bedside table on her right. The raven looked a ragged mess.

She froze, anger rose in her as she looked at her familiar’s injuries. “Charlie… are you…” 

Behind him she could see a wide window that took up most of the wall. It appeared pitch black at first glance, but as she looked deeper she could make out the lights of a city. London, she assumed.

_Right. London. I’m in England._

She rolled her head over to her left. She and Charlie had the room to themselves, though there were two empty wooden chairs tucked into a corner (also white). She also saw a wash basin and toilet in an alcove opposite the window. The room was still and quiet, except for the rustling of feathers.

She started to sit up, to look past the foot of the bed, when agony shot through her. A sharp pain ran up her back and down her right leg, accompanied by a dull ache through her stomach. She slumped back into the bed.

As she let out a groan, she heard a pop. A small creature with brown leathery skin appeared at the foot of the bed.

She yelled out and tried to scramble away, kicking out at it with her feet. But her leg felt weak, and every movement sent fresh pain shooting through her. She heard Charlie cry out in challenge next to her and beat his wings, but there was another pop and the creature disappeared again. 

“Patient is in pain?” Alexandra jumped again as she heard the voice from her left. She frantically turned to confront the voice, her right hand reaching desperately for a wand that was not there even as her stomach pulsed with fresh agony.

But as the pain cut through her she realized what she was looking at. The elf was now perched on her bedside table, its large, bulbous eyes regarding her with a look of concern and alarm. She could not discern its gender, but it was dressed in a white dress like an old-school nurse’s uniform.

Alex tried to pull herself together, still breathing heavily “I’m ok- ahhh!”

She groaned again, as shifting her legs caused another spike of pain up her back.

The elf deftly stepped forward onto the bed and touched her leg with a long finger. The leg immediately went numb, greatly reducing her pain. Alexandra took deep breaths as she tried to calm herself and settled back into the bed, still staring at the elf.

“Where else does the patient hurt?” The elf raised its hand again, looking on with concern.

“I’m- I’m fine thanks.” Alexandra ran her hand up and down her numb thigh. She could feel the pressure on her leg, but barely. Under the covers she was dressed in a white shift, and nothing else. “Where are we?”

“Patient is in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.”

“Where is-” Memories were flowing back into her mind, unbidden. Darkness, blood and the sudden deafening noise of gunshots. “Is someone- there were goblins-, where’s Professor Longbottom is he-”

The elf reached forward and put its hand on her shoulder. This time she did not recoil, instead struggling to control her breathing. “Patient is safe. No one will hurt Patient here.”

Alex shook her head but as the elf touched her shoulder she could feel a sense of calm, a feeling that spread from her shoulder throughout her body. It was not the numbness of her leg but even so she felt the pain ease slightly as her muscles relaxed.

“Wait… stop!” Alexandra swatted the elf away and it stepped back in alarm as Charlie cawed a warning. As the elf retreated Alexandra groaned again and curled into a fetal position. Fresh pain shot through her and she tried very hard to lay still, taking deep breaths as she clutched her stomach.

After a long minute, she felt she was under control again. She looked at the elf. She thought it, or ‘he’, was male. “What’s your name?”

“Yorey.”

Alexandra nodded. “Okay, Yorey. Where’s my wand?”

Yorey looked quizzical. “Patient did not have a wand when she presented.”

_Shit_. “I had one. Where are my clothes, maybe it’s with them?”

The elf shook his head “Patient has no personal effects documented.”

She tried to think back through all the mess. The goblin took the yew wand. Does he still have it? Did they… 

Then she remembered the goblin on top of her, screaming silently as the flames engulfed his face, and collapsing into a smouldering heap. 

_What did I…_

“Listen, Yorey. Were you here when I was brought in? Was anyone else hurt?”

Yorey shook his head. “Yorey was on break when Patient presented. Note says Patient was brought to St. Mungo’s by a Professor Longbottom, treated by Healer Vespert.”

Alexandra hesitated before asking “There weren’t any goblins brought in at the same time were there?”

“Yorey cannot disclose information about other Patients.”

She frowned and looked out the dark window. It seemed Hospital Elves were less helpful than House Elves “How long was I out?”

“Patient presented at four-oh-seven in the morning, Tuesday. It is now just after two-thirty-three in the morning, Thursday.”

“Two days.” she muttered to herself. She looked at Charlie, who had left his cage and settled on the bed next to her. Alexandra reached out and stroked the bird, gently tracing around the cuts, torn feathers, and burns. She wondered how bad he’d looked when they’d arrived.

“Patient was given a sleep potion shortly after arrival.” The elf continued, in a soothing tone that suggested the patient was a nervous animal that might kick or bolt at the wrong word. “She awoke yesterday morning but was delirious. Healer ordered that she be given a second dose to keep her asleep until her fever came down.”

“I don’t even remember that.” Alexandra looked back at the elf. “Did you call anyone? My m- sisters? Do they know?” she wasn’t sure whether she wanted them to know or not.

A man’s voice answered. “I notified your next of kin as soon as you were stabilized. I understand that your sisters attempted to arrange a flight, but someone in the Confederation government interfered.”

Alexandra turned to see the speaker standing near the foot of her bed. She blinked when he came into focus. 

She supposed he must be a wizard, but he was dressed in hospital scrubs that looked much like those she had seen Claudia wear hundreds of times, though his were a slightly darker shade of blue than Claudia’s. The newcomer was a short, white man with a compact frame. His face and scalp were both clean-shaven, and he had high cheekbones and large blue eyes behind rimless glasses. His age was difficult to estimate, he might have been in his forties as easily as his sixties. The only thing clearly magical about his appearance was the wand in his hand, which was thick, knotted and oddly twisted, with a spiralling shape and no clear handle. He was moving it wordlessly over Alexandra’s body as he stepped to her bedside.

Yorey spoke up as he saw the man. “The patient is stable, Healer Vespert. She was experiencing pain in her right leg, so I administered a Numbing Charm. She was also expressing some agitation but refused a Calming Charm.”

“Good work, Yorey. I believe Professor Longbottom asked to be notified as soon as Alexandra woke up. Would you be so good as to arrange that while I have a word with her?”

Alexandra thought his voice sounded familiar, but before she could place from where she realized something else.

“You’re American?”

“North Carolina, born and raised.” The Healer smiled. He nodded to Yorey, who promptly disapparated with a small ‘pop.’

“Where’s my wand?”

“No one has mentioned a wand to me. You didn’t have one when I first saw you. I suspect that if you had a wand at the time you were attacked, it may have been taken by the aurors as evidence.”

Alexandra eyed the man warily. Whatever he had been doing holding holding his wand over her bed, he seemed satisfied. He muttered _’Muffliato’_ before tucking the odd, knotted wand into a pocket of his scrubs.

“I should probably introduce myself. I’m Healer Adam Vespert, I’m on the staff here.”

“What are you doing in England?”

The healer shrugged. “The Confederation is a sinking ship, Alexandra. You aren’t the only rat swimming for any shore that will have you. It was just my luck that Britain had troubles of its own and suddenly found itself in need of healers with my particular skill set.”

“What’s that?”

“Battlefield healing. Our British cousins don’t play with firearms nearly as much as the muggles back home do, and when they do they almost never point them at a wizard. Before Slipfang showed up hardly any healers here knew their way around a gunshot wound.” 

Alexandra felt another twinge and involuntarily put a hand to her stomach. “But you do?”

“Sure do. You see your share as a Regimental Healer.”

“You were in the ROC?”

“Of course, back in the day the regiments were the only place a muggle-born could get advanced healing training. You can thank your father and his friends in the congress that that’s no longer the case.”

Alexandra met the Healer’s eyes and he returned her gaze with a faint smile. There was no hint of the fear that mention of Abraham Thorn brought out in most American wizards. It was a moment before Vespert spoke again.

“But enough about me, you’re the patient and I’d like to talk about you for the moment Alexandra. Yorey says you’re still in pain?”

She grimaced and nodded, placing a hand to her stomach. “I don’t understand. The spell-” she stopped abruptly.

The healer chuckled. “Yes, mind if I ask who’s carrying that bullet wound for you?”

Her eyes snapped back to him.

His smile did not waver. “That was a very impressive _healing_ charm for a fifteen-year-old, Alexandra. Fortunately there’s more to healing than waving a wand and saying the magic word, otherwise they wouldn’t pay me nearly as much. Your charm was a patch job. It repaired most of the immediate damage that was done and stopped you from bleeding to death, but it did nothing for the half a gallon of blood you’d already lost, or the fact that it had had lots of time to mix up with some bowel contents from the perforated intestine. And the patch job wasn’t exactly perfect either- by the time I got to you your hip flexors were barely holding together and you’d sprung secondary bleeds in half a dozen places that I had to fix myself.”

He shook his head. “You’ve had a rough couple of days, young lady. First the shock from the blood loss then the shock from the massive infection you got from all the sewage pumped into your bloodstream. I’d hate to see the other guy.”

She had slumped back onto her pillows. “You like to hear yourself talk, don’t you?”

He grinned “Rank hath its privileges. Or don’t they teach that anymore in the JROC?”

She frowned. “How-”

“As a point of interest,” he continued. “The wound-relocating charm isn’t on any list of banned dark arts in this country. Or in any list or book as far as I can tell. The Anasazi made some nifty spells in their day, but they never got the chance to teach them to the Normans and Anglo-Saxons. Even so, I think the Hogwarts administration might take exception to the use of such a spell by one of its students. It isn’t technically illegal in Britain, but anyone who takes the time to look it up will find that it’s considered banned dark arts in every Confederation Territory except Louisiana. Fortunately-” he glanced casually towards the door. “-any auror who takes the trouble to get a court order for my treatment records will find that you closed your wounds with a crude and improvised, but entirely benign, healing charm.”

Alexandra was staring very intently at the healer now. “You lied?”

“Of course not. What does a simple country healer like me know about obscure Indian dark magic? It’s just an honest mistake.” 

“What are you going to say when they ask what happened to the goblin who shot me?”

He shrugged. “Frankly, British aurors barely know more about guns than British healers. They’ll believe almost anything. And it wouldn’t even be the first time a bullet meant for you ended up in someone else would it?”

Alexandra stared for another moment in silence before speaking.

“All right seriously, who the fuck are you?”.

Vespert didn’t miss a beat. “Just the man who saved your life Miss Quick, what more you might want to know besides that... “ He shrugged. “I really can’t say. In any event-” he stood up. “-I doubt I’ll be bothering you again. Tuesday was my last day on shift and this is actually cutting into my week off. Healer Bletchley will be taking care of you from now on, you’ll likely see her first thing tomorrow.”

“Then why are you even here?”

“I don’t forget my patients after they leave my care, Miss Quick. And you were a _very_ interesting case, I couldn’t resist checking up on you myself. And besides-” he paused at the door and turned to meet her eyes, his face deadly serious. “-someone had to stay close, make sure the goblins didn’t pay you another visit. More than likely your guests on Tuesday weren’t working alone and who knows what their friends might get up to with you in a coma?”

*****

Yorey returned after Vespert had left. With a gesture and a word the elf drew thick curtains over the windows and reduced the light in the room to a comfortable darkness. He advised her that “Patient should try to sleep.” Although Alexandra flatly refused the offer of a sleeping potion she did gratefully accept help with the pain in her stomach. 

Even with a fresh numbing charm, walking was extremely difficult. After a single trip to the toilet (assisted with another numbing charm and a featherweight spell from Yorey), Alexandra lost any inclination she might have felt to try to explore the hospital, or even to leave her bed. 

She thought about Vespert’s parting words, but after the ordeal that she suffered walking across her small room and back she had to admit that with no wand and no serious prospect of getting one she was very close to completely helpless. Lying in bed she glanced around with her Witch’s Sight and saw that her hospital room was permeated with enchantments, even more than her Leaky Cauldron room had been. Some appeared to be defensive charms similar to those at the Inn and she could feel an apparition ward enclosing her room and possibly the entire complex. Many others she could not identify. Perhaps spells to promote healing or ward off disease or something. She saw nothing she could easily weaponize though, at least not without learning a lot more healing magic.

She lay in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling for what felt like a long time before she heard a flutter of wings and Charlie landed on her lap.

She stroked the raven, feeling the scars and torn feathers again.

“You saved me too didn’t you Charlie?”

The raven clucked wordlessly.

She sighed. “I think I have to sleep. Promise to wake me if anything nasty shows up?”

“Wicked.” Charlie answered, and hopped back onto the bedside table.

She sighed, and did her best to go to sleep.

*****

She woke to sunlight creeping around the edges of the blinds and someone in the room with her. She froze when she saw the form of a man sitting in one of the chairs next to her bed, but relaxed when she recognized Neville Longbottom. The professor had a pile of parchment on his lap and was scribbling away at something, his wand lit and held carefully close to his work, presumably to avoid waking her. Alexandra quietly turned to look at Charlie, still snoozing on the bedside table.

_Lazy bird_. She turned back to Longbottom.

“Sorry about the mess in my room.” Alexandra yawned as the professor started and turned towards her. “I guess I had to leave in a hurry.”

“Alexandra.” The professor raised his wand, then lowered it again as she blinked in the light. “I’m sorry, did I wake you? They told me to let you sleep.”

“It’s okay.” She shielded her eyes as she squinted at him. “What time is it?”

He was still eyeing her anxiously. “Just after nine. You’ve been asleep-”

“Two days, yeah I heard.”

“Are you feeling alright? Do you need anything?” Longbottom was standing up and gathering his parchment now.

“Where’s my wand?”

He paused. “Hannah said the aurors took it, to examine for evidence. I will ask them to return it.”

“What about the other one?”

“Other one?” he looked puzzled.

“The one from the room, the one the goblin had. It was in my hand.”

He frowned “I don’t know, I assume the aurors would have that too.”

She slumped back in her bed and stared at the ceiling.

“They-er- they said that if you were hungry when you woke up they had potions you could drink, I’ll just-”

“Wait.” Alexandra held up a hand, and Longbottom paused.

She took a deep breath.

“No one else was hurt? You and Hannah, you’re okay?”

He looked at her strangely. “Of course, not a scratch.”

“No guests were hurt? Nothing?”

He shook his head “Everybody’s fine. Even the room’s clean.”

She sighed “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Longbottom’s voice was incredulous.

“I should have warned you.”

“You knew that goblin terrorists were going to attack your room?”

She frowned “No but I knew someone was trying to kill me. Or I should have. They were trying all last year, why should they have stopped now?”

“Who?”

“I don’t know!” she snapped at him.

“And you think whoever this was trying to kill you last year was the one who sent those goblins?”

“No! Maybe. I don’t know. Probably not, it doesn’t really seem like their style.”

She heard Charlie stir and give an irritated squawk. Longbottom was quiet for a moment. He pulled his chair closer to the bed and sat back down while she fumed.

“Well, I’m sorry too.”

She looked at him skeptically “What for?”

“My job was to keep you safe, and you were attacked three times in one day on my watch.”

“You helped me against that Dearborn guy, and you brought me here. You probably saved my life.”

“You were nearly killed while you were my guest.”

“You didn’t-”

“I know. I’m sorry anyway.”

She glared at him for a moment before Charlie piped up over her shoulder 

“Troublesome.”

“Go back to sleep.” she grumbled at the bird.

When she turned back to the Professor, he had returned to his paperwork. 

“What’s that?”

“Your admissions forms.” He was scribbling something.

“But don’t I have to go to the Ministry or something?”

“I went to your appointment myself and managed to get your visa approved _in absentia_. They fast-tracked your admission, so once I finish these forms I’ve just got to Owl them in and you’ll officially be a Hogwarts student.”

“What’s the rush?”

“Once you’re enrolled, your healing costs will be covered by the school. Until then, since you aren’t a citizen or permanent resident you’ll be paying out of pocket for all your treatment.” He looked harried. “I hear that the healer waived his fee, but the hospital stay and all the potions you needed are probably close to a thousand galleons by now.”

Alexandra blinked. “A galleon is… what one and a half Lions?”

“One point seven three, when I checked at Gringotts yesterday.”

She did some quick and imprecise mental calculations, then said a word she probably shouldn’t have in front of a teacher. Longbottom ignored it, continuing to scribble.

She put a hand to her stomach as it throbbed again with the minimal exertion. One thing just piled on another didn’t it? “So you’re still letting me in?”

He looked up from his work. “Of course. Don’t you still want in?”

She thought about the question, and Vespert’s words from the night before, as she stared at her stomach. “They’re dead, aren’t they? All of them?”

Longbottom paused. “The ones who attacked you? They were dead when I got there.”

Did she want another year like the last? Constantly watching her back, talking only behind _muffliato_ charms in case someone was spying on her, looking for an opportunity to kill her? Only with no friends and even her sisters an ocean away. She saw the goblin’s faces again.

“Do you need to talk about what happened, Alexandra?” Longbottom asked.

She didn’t look up. “I used Dark Magic.”

She didn’t see his reaction, but after a pause he simply said “Explain.”

She swallowed and cleared her throat. “There’s a spell, it’s called a wound-relocating charm. It moves an injury from one part of the body to another. It’s classified as Dark in the Confederation because if you get good at it you can move your wound to another person.” She took a deep breath. “The goblin- the last one after I dealt with the first two, he shot me when I thought he was down. Then he came at me with that knife, he hurt Charlie.” She glanced at the bird who was watching her silently. “I don’t know any real healing magic, just basic first aid charms I learned in JROC. I thought I was dying, and he was going to kill me so-” She sighed. “I gave my wound to him. And he died.”

Longbottom was quiet for a moment, then she heard parchment scraping on parchment and he handed her a pen.

“You’ll need to sign that there.”

She took the offered pen and looked at the offered sheet for a long moment, before signing carefully where he pointed.

Longbottom suddenly stood up and turned towards the door.

“Where are you going?” she heard a hint of panic mixed in with the surprise in her voice.

Longbottom paused when he saw the look on her face.

“It’s alright.” For a moment it looked like he was reaching out to her, but he seemed to think better of it. Instead he held up a handful of parchment. “I’m going to go owl these, and I’ll get you one of those potions on the way back. Twenty minutes, promise. Send Charlie again if you need me.” 

He paused at the door and looked back. “Alexandra... you don’t need to talk about anything with me- the aurors will be by soon to ask you about what happened- but if you need to talk about it just let me know.”

After he was gone, Alexandra went back to staring at her stomach.


	7. Brute Force & Ignorance

Longbottom had to leave after returning with Alexandra’s potion. He promised to drop by in the evening, and offered to bring revision materials so she would have something to occupy her time. Fortunately, by the time the professor left it was mid-morning, and Alexandra could hear people talking and caught a glimpse of someone walking by every few minutes as long as the door was left open. The sustenance potion was not as bad as Alexandra had feared- it was thin and utterly flavorless but within minutes of finishing it she no longer noticed her hunger.

Healer Bletchley turned out to be a black witch in her thirties, dressed in finely-made red robes and with dark cornrows tied back in a ponytail. She introduced herself as ‘Claire’, in an accent that was neither American nor British, and made a good impression by casting a numbing charm on Alexandra’s stomach after a very brief examination. Unfortunately, she then spent an inordinate amount of time trying to ascertain how Alexandra was feeling about ‘what had happened’ and whether there was ‘any help she could offer.’ Once Alexandra determined that there was no way for the healer to get her a wand, she lost most of her interest in the conversation. This did not seem to dissuade Bletchley who, if anything, seemed more concerned as Alexandra’s responses became more non-committal. By the time the healer left, after prescribing three separate potions for Alexandra to take every morning, it was a relief to be left alone with Charlie again.

She understood, on some level, that she was not ‘okay’. She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel about what had happened, but she doubted that Longbottom, or Bletchley or anyone else who might drop by to show their concern did either. She did know that if the goblins, or Caradoc Dearborn or anyone else came after her again there was hardly anything she could do about it. She felt even more exposed than she had through the wandless months of her last summer in Larkin Mills. At least then she could walk, now she wouldn’t know where to go even if she could.

She was propped upright on three pillows and staring out the window when the aurors arrived in the early afternoon. It was the same pair she had met on her first visit to the Leaky Cauldron: Ron Weasley and Ophilia Karait.

“Good afternoon.” the red-haired man greeted her as his trainee followed him into the hospital room. “Glad to see you awake.”

“Do you have my wand?” she asked wearily.

The auror stopped and looked at her appraisingly for a moment. But he pulled the yew wand from a pocket of his robes and handed it to her.

She inspected it, ignoring them as they took their seats. It didn’t look like it had been damaged, but nor did she feel anything new when she took it in her hand.

“We understand you’ve had a difficult time and we don’t want to disturb-”

“ _Locomotor,_ ” she muttered. The door to her room slammed shut with a force that rattled the windows and made the young woman jump to her feet and reach for her own wand. Charlie squawked indignantly from his perch.

Alexandra just looked at the wand in disgust. It was still the same spiteful, ornery stick it had always been. She lowered it to her side without loosening her grip, and leaned back with a sigh.

Weasley glanced back at the door. “You’ll want to work on that before your Charms OWL.” he held out his hand. “Ronald Weasley.”

She looked at his hand, then met his eyes. “I know who you are, we met on Sunday, remember?” She glanced down at her stomach. “I think your wards need some work.”

Weasley met her gaze for a moment, then drew his wand. Alexandra started to raise the Yew Wand, startled, but the auror simply pointed his wand at the floor and said “ _Muffliato._ ” Then he made a broader gesture around the room and muttered “ _Repello vermis,_ ” dispensing a cloud of odorless orange mist that spread into all the corners of the room.

He leaned back in his chair. “The wards were fine. Ophilia and I double checked them the morning after the attack. But anti-apparition wards, even the ones at Hogwarts, have a hole in them that no one has yet managed to plug.” He pulled a small object from a pocket of his greatcoat and held it out to her. “Recognize this?”

She took it warily and inspected it. It was some kind of medallion, round and about the same size around as her palm, made of grey metal and stamped with lettering she did not recognize. It was pierced through the center and slung on a leather thong. She held it up spinning on the strip of leather in front of her eyes and it struck her.

_She was on the floor, pinned under a goblin with a knife to her throat. In the dim firelight she could see the other goblin hand an object to her captor, a small object slung on a cord…_

She blinked and shook her head, absently rubbing her neck with her other hand. “One of the goblins had it, they passed it between each other-” She looked at the Auror. “What is it?”

He shrugged “Now? It’s just a hunk of metal on a string. But it _was_ a portkey, one of a set. One to get in, one to get out.”

She looked back at the ex-portkey. “How’d they made a portkey to go straight to my room?”

Weasley leaned back in his chair again. “Why don’t you tell me everything you remember about what happened, Miss Quick.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she did. She started with Charlie waking her up as the three goblins appeared out of nowhere in her room and continued, nearly uninterrupted, to her last memory of using the wound-relocating charm before she lost consciousness. Weasley asked only a handful of clarifying questions, his expression neutral as he listened to the story, though she saw the girl looking increasingly skeptical as she scribbled away taking notes.

When she was finished, Weasley asked more questions, taking her back to the day before, wandering around London and her two encounters with the Order of the Phoenix.

When she was done Weasley considered for a moment before speaking. “Well, we’ve had a chance to investigate what went on Tuesday morning. We were able to identify two of the goblins that attacked you as members of SCOURGE.” 

“That’s that terrorist group that attacked Hogwarts right?”

“Yes, it stands for… er-”

Ophilia spoke up crisply “Sorcerers Champion Oppression, Unite for the Restoration of Goblin Equality.”

Weasley rolled his eyes “I hear it has some real poetry to it in Gobbledegook.” He leaned forward on his knees. “Alexandra, have you ever had any dealings with SCOURGE?”

She bristled. “No.”

“Do you have any idea why they might want to harm you?”

She had been thinking about that. Only one possible connection came to mind and it seemed pretty thin. “You know who my father is?”

Weasley nodded.

She glanced at the closed door. “Last year, the Thorn Circle attacked two Gringotts in Atlanta and New Amsterdam. I didn’t have anything to do with it-” she glanced at Weasley warily before continuing- “but maybe someone who wanted revenge on him might try and go through me.”

She heard Ophilia scribbling, but Weasley just looked at her steadily. She met his eyes and didn’t blink.

“And you’d never met this ‘Caradoc Dearborn’ bloke before monday?” Weasley asked after a moment.

She was a little thrown by the change of subject, but rallied quickly. “No. Like I told the Professor I’d never heard of him in my life.”

Weasley looked thoughtful for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision. He handed her what looked like an old photograph. “Is this the man you saw Miss Quick?”

She took it. The picture was in extremely grainy colour. It depicted a young man who looked roughly the same age as her, dressed in black robes with a badge of a Lion rampant on the left breast. He had brown, or possibly auburn, hair (it was tough to be sure with the colour quality) and thick sideburns making their way down his cheeks, though his face was clean-shaven. The adolescent face bore only a faint resemblance to the man who had attacked her, but the cold blue eyes were the same. The image of the young man in the photo met her gaze with the same cold hostility with which his older self had regarded her while she lay defenceless.

Alexandra nodded, still staring at the picture. “Yeah, that’s him. So who is he?”

“That’s a bit of a long story.” Weasley shifted in his seat. “Neville told me about you meeting Dearborn after the attack and we’ve-” Ophilia cleared her throat. “-Ophilia’s been spending some time digging through ministry records while I called some old friends. Caradoc Dearborn was a member of the Order of the Phoenix back in the very old days. That’s the only photo we were able to find. The people I spoke to all thought he died or disappeared in seventy-seven or seventy-eight but none knew precisely how and there’s no Ministry record either.

Alexandra frowned. “And nobody thought to look for him or find out?”

Weasley shrugged. “He was at the back of a very long line. Loads of people went missing in those days and we still don’t know what happened to half of them.”

“Maybe ask those Order of the Phoenix guys, they seemed to know who he was.”

“We’ll consider it. In the meantime we need to talk about your safety.”

Alexandra straightened slightly at the words, feeling a throb from her stomach muscles as she did. 

“What do you mean?” she eyed the auror warily.

“Neville tells me you still plan to attend Hogwarts despite the possible danger?”

She nodded.

“I’ve spoken to the chief, the Auror office can offer you special protection until you get to Hogwarts.”

“I don’t need protection.”

Weasley raised his eyebrows, and took a glance around the hospital room. “You sure about that?”

“Crazy.” Charlie chimed in.

“Are you going to have an Auror follow me around?” Her grip tightened reflexively on the yew wand.

Weasley's eyes flicked to her wand hand. After a moment she relaxed her grip.

He continued. “No. This is entirely voluntary. I talked to Neville and Hannah, it seems you made a good impression since they say you’re welcome with them as long as you need a place to stay.”

Alexandra said nothing.

“Of course we’ll have to work out what extra security is necessary at the Cauldron with you there.” Weasley mused. “Probably need to arrange an escort for you whenever you leave for any reason. And not sure what it will do to their business when people realize the situation. I know they’ve taken a hit already but it doesn’t seem to dissuade them.”

Alexandra glared down at her stomach again. She had learned by painful experience to limit any movement of her core, but sitting up or even moving significantly in bed still ached. She had limped the short distance to her toilet only twice that day. She’d refused to call the Nursing Elves for help as she had the night before, instead pulling herself along the furniture while Charlie crowed anxiously at her. The pain from that small movement had stayed with her for minutes after she had gotten back to her bed and lay still. She wanted to believe that it was better than the night before, but how long would it be before she could defend herself at this rate?

She looked back up at Weasley. “What are you offering?”

“One guard at all times while you’re in St. Mungo’s. Extra for any transfers that need to take place. We’re trying to keep your background and involvement need-to-know, so Ophilia will be taking the day shifts at least for the first while to keep the circle small. We don’t have a time frame yet for when you’ll be ready to leave, but we can arrange for a safe location for you to wait out the rest of August. I believe we can put you up at one of our safe houses with a fidelius charm, the best protection we can offer.”

Alexandra looked at Ophilia, who met her gaze steadily. The girl had light brown skin, long, straight black hair she wore in a braid, and chiseled features that were striking more than pretty. She was tall and there were hints of an impressive figure as well, even beneath her overcoat. Although Alex guessed she was barely out of school, she carried herself with a kind of stern dignity that made her seem older. 

She actually reminded Alexandra more than a little of Lilith and Diana Grimm, which didn’t make her eager to be placed under the other girl’s ‘protection’. 

But she was even more reluctant for someone else to be put in danger for her sake. She had no faith in the auror’s ability to protect her, but the last thing she wanted was to put Longbottom, Hannah and any other bystanders who might be at the Leaky Cauldron in harm’s way.

She turned back to Weasley. “There’s some school supplies I still need to pick up. I didn’t have the chance before… all this happened.” she gestured vaguely around the room. “And there’s some kind of test I still need to do at your Ministry.”

Weasley nodded. “We can have your school things dropped off for Ophilia to deliver to you once you’re secure. We can arrange an escort for you to the Ministry when you do need to take your tests. You’ve still got a month, and I’m sure Hogwarts will stretch some deadlines to allow for your difficulties.”

Alexandra sighed and nodded.

“Well, I must be off.” Weasley stood up. “Be sure to let Ophilia know if you remember anything else, or if you think of anything that might help us protect you.”

“There’s one thing.” Alexandra spoke up as Weasley made to leave. “The wand, the one the goblin had, what happened to it?”

Weasley looked surprised at the question. “We identified it as the property of a wizard who went missing earlier this year. The wand is still being held as evidence, but once we no longer need it, it will be delivered to his next of kin.”

Alexandra chewed her lip for a moment. She felt like she already knew what the answer would be, but she had to try. “It paired with me, when I picked it up. This wand-” she held up the Yew Wand. “I got it after my old one was broken, and it never works right. You saw what happened.” She looked at the door and her words started to come quicker. “If I’d had a wand when they attacked me, I wouldn’t be here! I could have stopped them. I wouldn’t have had to-” She swallowed and took a deep breath before looking back at the Auror. “That wand- I need it back, please. Don’t send me back out unarmed.”

Weasley looked thoughtful. “You don’t trust us, do you Alexandra?”

She just stared at him.

He nodded to himself and glanced at the door. “Well, I don’t doubt that you’re that wand’s true master now. Nothing teaches a wand who’s boss like pulling it from the cold, dead hands of its previous owner.” He glanced out the window. “I’ll see what I can do, but it’s not up to me. The Ministry doesn’t operate on the rules of wandlore, unfortunately. Ophilia will get you to Ollivander’s sometime before school starts. If this doesn’t come through they might be able to find you something.” He opened the door and gave her a last look. “Good night, Alexandra.”

After he left Alexandra snorted bitterly and turned to Ophilia who was regarding her thoughtfully. “So you’re my babysitter now huh?”

Ophilia nodded. “Let me know if you need a nappy changed.”

******

She called Claudia later that night. The elves provided a magical, self-propelled wheelchair with a thick wooden frame that made a good perch for Charlie. Ophilia escorted the two of them to a neglected corner of the ward, where she found a small desk with an old-fashioned rotary phone, both covered in a thin layer of dust. Claudia answered on the first ring.

Claudia was worried, of course, and initially seemed ready to demand that Alexandra return home on the first available flight. She wasn’t happy when Alexandra pointed out that if the Confederation could stop Livia travelling to Britain, then they probably could and would stop Alexandra from travelling back, or possibly wait for her to land and arrest her at the airport. For the time being, it seemed to Alex, she was stuck here whether she liked it or not.

“What _are_ you going to do then?” Claudia sounded frustrated.

Alexandra gave a shrug that her sister couldn’t see. “I guess I’m going to Hogwarts, same as before all this happened. I just heard they approved my admission.”

“Alex-”

“I mean, hey, if someone’s trying to kill me here too, maybe going to school at Hogwarts won’t be as big an adjustment as you and Livia thought.”

“Alex, what are you talking about?”

Alexandra sighed. “Do you really want to know?”

Claudia was silent.

Alexandra slumped back in her chair. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Claudia hadn’t asked any questions about precisely how she had ended up in a magical hospital, or why it had taken her two days to call. She wondered whether Claudia was actually afraid of what she might hear or if this was just the learned habit of nearly fifteen years of studied incuriosity.

“Don’t worry about it. I did something dumb without thinking and I got hurt. Story of my life, right?” 

_Also, I killed three people._

There wasn’t much more to say after that. After Alexandra hung up, Charlie fluttered down to land in her lap. She sat there for a minute stroking the raven’s feathers.

“Miss you terrible.” Charlie said.

“Maybe.”

Ophilia, Charlie and Alexandra were all quiet on the way back to her room.

*****

Longbottom dropped by again the next morning, delivering a heavy pile of books as promised. 

“These are the recommended text books in each of the core OWL subjects at the fourth year level.” Longbottom explained, as he deposited seven thick tomes on her side table. “They’re a good benchmark for the standard on the fifth year equivalency tests. There’s a study guide for each”

Alexandra quickly scanned the titles. She saw textbooks for Charms, Transfiguration, Alchemy, and Magical History, as she had expected. She was surprised to see a Herbology book in the stack, and felt a hint of alarm when she saw an Astronomy almanac. She had taken only a single semester of Herbology in her time at Charmbridge and she had never formally studied Astronomy or Astrology, although between finding her way to Mors Mortis society meetings and extra-curricular research on the Stars Above she supposed she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with that area of magic.

She pointed to ‘ _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defence_ ’ which was near the bottom of the pile. “You have Magical Defence as a core course?”

Longbottom nodded. “Oh yes, right from first year.” He looked at her with a hint of concern. “You don’t need to worry if you haven’t had exposure to some subjects before, these tests are just for placement.”

Alexandra had to work hard to suppress an eye-roll at the familiar line. “I think I can keep up in Magical Defense. You know, if they go easy on the new girl.” She squinted at the book titles. “Where’s the one for Magical Theory?”

Longbottom looked surprised. “Magical Theory is an elective. And it isn’t offered until NEWT level.”

She frowned. “Then where do you learn Arithmancy?” 

It turned out that Arithmancy was its own dedicated class which was, apparently, offered as an elective from third year onwards. This led into a discussion of Hogwarts’ course syllabus which, thankfully, turned out to be considerably simpler than the one at Charmbridge. All students began with the same seven core courses. Starting in third year, Hogwarts students could choose electives from Arithmancy, Divination, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies, something called ‘Being Studies,’ and Magizoology (which they called “Care of Magical Creatures”). At the end of fifth year students took their “Ordinary Wizarding Levels” and afterwards could pick and choose which subjects they wanted to continue to ‘NEWT’- level.

“What does NEWT stand for?” she asked.

“Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.” Longbottom was buckling up his trunk so he couldn’t see Alexandra’s expression.

“How many electives can you take?” she asked with what she hoped was a straight face.

“There used to be no limit, but we’ve had to cap it at three for practical reasons with the Time-Turner shortage since the war.”

“You let people… wait, why… how long have-” She felt like she was choking on her questions, there was just too much wrong with that sentence to know what to ask.

“Don’t worry, there’s no need for you to take a full course load! Most Hogwarts students don’t.” Longbottom looked anxious and was making a vague soothing gesture with one hand.

“I’m not-” she stopped and took a deep breath. “Thanks for the books, Professor. If you have time, do you think I could get study materials for Arithmancy, Divination and... um… Magizoology as well?” 

Longbottom agreed to get her study materials for the elective subjects as well, then left her alone with her bird and the books. Alexandra scanned the titles again before picking up _Goshawk’s Guide to Herbology_ and getting to work.

*****  
Over the next week, Alexandra did little besides study. Healer Bletchley visited almost every morning with a numbing charm and some encouraging words and Professor Longbottom stopped by in the evening most days to check on her. Every morning, with Yorey or another Hospital Elf on hand to provide Numbing or Featherweight charms as needed, and Ophilia shadowing her looking watchful, Alexandra took a walk around the hospital floor that was her temporary home. Every evening she did it again. In between, almost all of her time was spent with the books Longbottom brought her.

She found that Charms was mostly review. There were a few charms in the Hogwarts syllabus that had not been taught at Charmbridge, and just as many that she had learned at Charmbridge were not in the books that Longbottom had given her. She went through four years’ worth of the Standard Book of Spells and made note of unfamiliar Charms for further reference, but she thought better of trying to practice them with the Yew Wand, at least until she was out of the hospital.

When she turned to Potions and Transfiguration she found that the Hogwarts curriculum in these subjects was, if anything, behind what she had learned at Charmbridge. Mr. Grue had drilled his students on the principles of Alchemy with ruthless and sadistic rigor, and although Alexandra had hardly been his most attentive student, there was little in the text Longbottom left that she had not seen before. There were still a few potion recipes that weren’t taught at Charmbridge, which she noted. The Transfiguration curriculum at Hogwarts also seemed mostly in line with her previous education. It looked as though new fifth year students were mostly expected to be familiar with the four basic types of transfiguration in preparation for learning Vanishing spells, and later, Conjuring spells at OWL and NEWT level.

Defense Against the Dark Arts proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Looking through _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defence_ she found that it mostly covered the same basic protection against magical creatures that they had learned in their defence lectures at Charmbridge. She did see some mention of actual Dark Arts, including the Unforgivable Curses, in the material listed at the fifth-year level, but that was a project for another day as she was too busy revising to spend much time on material that wouldn’t be on the coming test.

As expected, she first ran into real difficulty when she got to Herbology and Astronomy. Of the plants she had studied in her single semester with Miss Verde, at least half were not found in Europe, and not mentioned at all in the Herbology guide Longbottom had given her. That left a few dozen magical plants that were both on the curriculum and familiar to her, as well as several hundred that she had never studied and, in many cases, never even heard of. Astronomy was also a grind. She had some familiarity with the basic astronomical terms through her various extracurricular activities, but not nearly enough to make up for the four full years of study that Hogwarts students had completed.

But it was History of Magic that turned out to be the bane of Alexandra’s existence in her time at St. Mungo’s. History and Wizard Social Studies had always been her worst subjects, mostly because she resented the blatantly propagandistic tone with which these topics were taught at Charmbridge. One virtue of propaganda, however, was that it was predictable. In freshman year, when Alexandra had actually started to care about her grades for the first time, she had mastered the art of answering every question by guessing what Department of Magical Education officials wanted to hear and shot to the top of the class almost overnight. It didn’t seem as though this trick would avail her much at Hogwarts though, and if there was a similar trick for guessing the birthplace of the Supreme Mugwump of the Wizengamot at the time of the creation of the International Statute of Secrecy, or why this was connected to Magical Britain’s ban on flying carpets, Alexandra did not know it. The curriculum at Hogwarts was mostly focused on long-winded narrative history with a particular fixation on such obscure and trivial details. Alexandra found that the only way to stay on track while studying from her History of Magic text was to take half-hourly breaks where she would take a few steps around her hospital room so that the pain this provoked could wake her up.

Alexandra quickly gave up on studying any actual magic and spent her days at St. Mungo’s bludgeoning her way through four years worth of Astronomy, Herbology, and History of Magic by brute-force memorization. Once she remembered that Professor Longbottom’s subject was Herbology, she took the opportunity to pepper him with questions on magical plants, which seemed to cheer him up and made a nice change of subject from discussions of her recovery.

Every day she walked a little further. By Monday she could limp from her room down the hall to the elevator and back without support. The morning after- one week after receiving her wound- Alexandra, Charlie and Ophilia made their way up to the Hospital’s fifth floor cafeteria. 

Alexandra ordered a cup of tea and a bowl of thin tomato soup which was the closest thing to food that had passed her lips in a week. She kept it down, though she lost her appetite before finishing. Ophilia accompanied her to a table in an out-of-the way corner but declined to order anything, instead sipping from a steel flask that she pulled from a pocket on the inside of her auror overcoat.

“Here you go, greedy-guts.” Alexandra passed her bowl, still almost half-full, to Charlie and took a look around the room. This was her first time seeing any of the hospital besides her room and the hallway just outside, and the view was proving interesting. At the table closest to them a man with a coat of yellow fur on his face was trying to eat porridge, but it was made awkward by a long, dog-like tongue that he seemed to have difficulty fitting in his mouth. Near a window by the far wall, she saw a long table, less than three feet off the ground, where half a dozen elves in the familiar hospital uniforms were seated, chattering to each other in high-pitched voices.

Alexandra looked at the elves curiously for a moment but she was distracted by a voice calling her name.

She turned to see Healer Bletchley approaching the table, the bright white of her teeth flashing as she grinned. She looked down at the now-empty bowl as she stopped by Alexandra and Ophilia’s table. “How did it taste? Are you keeping it down alright?”

Alexandra actually managed a smile. The healer’s joy was too sincere to be resisted completely. “It was okay, Healer- uh… Claire. I would have had more but some greedy bird stole it.”

The Healer gave an exaggerated gasp. “Charlie, have you been naughty?”

Charlie made a snickering sound.

Bletchley smiled again and sighed, taking a seat at the table with them. “I miss bringing my familiar to work. I’ve been leaving Ginger at home since we came to the UK.”

Ophilia raised an eyebrow. “Familiar? You mean a pet?”

“Not quite.” Alexandra glanced at the Healer. “They don’t allow the Healers to have familiars, but they let me walk around with Charlie?”

Bletchley shook her head. “Oh, no, it’s not that. I need Ginger at home to watch over my man and the girls.” Her smile was fading now. “Can’t be too careful, with all that’s going on. My boy can smell a goblin a mile away, and I feed him Strengthening Solution every morning.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Alexandra felt a twinge, and involuntarily put a hand on her stomach.

Bletchley sighed again, and shook her head as if to clear it. “Well, you’re coming along quicker than I expected Alexandra.” She paused for a moment and frowned “No pun intended. We’ll see if you can keep soup down for today, and tomorrow we can experiment with stews. With luck, you’ll never have to taste another sustenance potion.”

Alexandra nodded. The tasteless potions were one of many things she would not miss about St. Mungo’s. “When do you think I can get out of here?”  
“Eager to bid us farewell?” Bletchley was smiling again. “It’s okay, we don’t take it personal. If you keep up like you’ve been doing, we could be clearing out your room by Friday.”

Alexandra couldn’t keep the disappointment off her face. Three more days. 

“You’re a tough and brave girl, I’m sure you can survive a few more days here.” Bletchley put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, what are you studying today? Something fun?”

Alexandra sighed. “Astronomy.”

“Well…” the Healer gestured helplessly. “...there’s always tomorrow.”


	8. Equivalencies

There was no warning from Charlie this time, only the sound of a door closing.

The Yew Wand was in Alexandra’s hand in an instant. Her stomach and leg twinged as she rose to a sitting position, but she ignored it in the rush of adrenaline. In the darkness she saw a flash of movement near the door.

_‘Stupefy!’_ she yelled, without a moment’s hesitation.

The Yew Wand seemed to vibrate and she felt her hand go numb as a burst of red light shot from her wand towards the door. In a split second it came rocketing back at her, the air rippling where it had struck a shield charm.

Alexandra rolled back off the bed- no, sofa- only to grunt in pain as her shoulder struck a hard object she hadn’t known was there. She bounced and fell to the floor in a heap, hearing a loud clatter of wood on wood behind her as she did.

She frantically struggled to raise her wand, but she fumbled her grip and it slipped through her fingers. She tried to dive for it when she heard a female voice say, calmly, _”Petrificus totalus.”_

Alexandra was frozen. Squeezed between two pieces of furniture. Her eyes darted around wildly, looking for something she could use but in the back of her mind she already knew it was useless. She could hear her heart galloping in her ears.

“ _Lumos._ ” the voice said and a clear white light revealed a cheaply furnished living room. She was sprawled, paralyzed, on a hardwood floor in front of a red futon and something that felt like a table leg was sticking into her back, though she couldn’t turn around to see. Past the futon she could see a kitchenette next to an entranceway, from which Ophilia Karait was approaching with a lit wand held high.

_Ophilia! She’s-_

Wait.

For the first time she paused to look at her surroundings. They were actually familiar.

_Right, we left St Mungo’s._ Healer Bletchley had cleared her to go two days after they’d met in the cafeteria and Weasley and Ophilia had brought her here, to a two-bedroom apartment (they insisted on calling it a ‘flat’) somewhere in Muggle London. Weasley had told her that she would be staying here until she finally left for Hogwarts, and then cast the Fidelius Charm on the apartment, with himself as Secret Keeper.

The older girl knelt beside Alexandra and looked her in the eyes.

“Are we calm?”

Alexandra had no way to respond, besides meeting Ophilia’s gaze. Her back, her shoulder, and most of all, her stomach were starting to hurt badly.

Ophilia pointed her wand and Alexandra felt a moment of panic. But the other girl just said _”Locomotor,”_ and Alexandra felt herself lifted off the ground and placed awkwardly back onto the futon. Then Ophilia gave a final wave of her wand and Alexandra could move again, slumping into the cushion with an involuntary groan.

As Alexandra was adjusting her position, rolling onto her side, Ophilia took a seat in an armchair opposite her. Alexandra glared at the other girl and she felt herself flushing, more from embarrassment than anger. Since they had moved into the ‘flat,’ Ophilia had traded her Auror’s uniform for muggle outfits and she was now dressed in a green blouse over a white tank top and bluejeans. She said nothing as Alexandra glared at her, merely pulling her stainless steel flask from a pocket and unscrewing it. Steam rose from the top.

“What were you doing, coming in so late?” Alexandra asked, finally.

“Just checking the perimeter, I do it every night around this time. Though this is the first time you’ve been asleep on the couch.” Ophilia took another drink. “Bad dream?”

Alexandra didn’t answer. She reached down to pick up the book that had fallen off the coffee table. _A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot. Well that explained falling asleep on the couch.

“If you want to play Little Ms. Stoic, it’s no concern of mine. But if you’re going to be hexing anyone who wakes you up, your dorm mates may take issue.”

Alexandra put the book down and frowned at the flask. “What’s in there, Pepper-up Potion?”

Ophilia glanced at her drink, shrugged and wordlessly held it out to Alexandra.

Alexandra looked at it skeptically, but after a moment she reached out and took a tentative sip. It turned out to be coffee, stronger and hotter than Alexandra usually liked.

Ophilia stood up and began rearranging the furniture that had been displaced in their duel. “I was in my seventh year when the goblins attacked Hogwarts. They knocked out half the teachers and almost all the students at once with drugged pumpkin juice.”

Alex wrinkled her nose. “Pumpkin Juice?”

“I make no apologies for British cuisine.”

Alexandra took another sip. “So, what? You drank the wrong pumpkin juice and now you never drink anything unless it’s from your own flask?”

Ophilia sat back down. “No. I never drank pumpkin juice, it’s exactly as revolting as it sounds. But I was nearly the only one still awake facing thirty or so armed goblins, so I had to play dead while the bastards took my wand, and wait for my chance to get another.” She reached for the flask and Alexandra handed it back. “But that’s no reason not to learn from the mistakes of others. Not all poisoners have such terrible taste in beverages.”

Alexandra was quiet for a minute, but the older girl just sipped casually.

Finally, she sighed. “So you got your hands on another wand?”

Ophilia smirked at her small victory. “Indeed. My luck was better than yours, though. I didn’t need to stab anyone for it.”

Alexandra looked away. 

“Is it guilt or fear that makes you flinch?”

Alexandra glared wordlessly back at Ophilia. The older girl inspected her calmly.

“Guilt, then.” She took another sip. “I envy you, you know.” Her tone was gentler than Alexandra had yet heard, and had lost the sardonic edge that reminded her so much of her aunts.

“What?” 

“I think I’d rather have an enemy on my conscience than a friend.” Ophilia leaned back in her chair and sighed. “You know I dug through the records on your attackers while you were in the hospital. Would it help to know they were both murderers?”

Alexandra frowned and looked at her hands. Early morning light was beginning to filter through the blinds from the street outside. She heard a car engine passing, and wondered what anyone listening outside would have heard of their little duel.

Finally she pulled herself to a sitting position. She saw that Ophilia was looking over the books on the coffee table.

“You’re probably wasting your time on History of Magic, you know.”

“Because I’m going to fail anyway?”

“No, because nobody fails History of Magic.” Ophilia said matter-of-factly. “That subject’s been a joke for decades. They’ve got a ghost teaching it who no one can listen to without falling asleep. If they didn’t mark it on the most generous curve imaginable they’d be failing half the Hogwarts class every year.” She smirked. “If you can tell Merlin from Circe, you’ll do fine.”

Alexandra was skeptical. “Isn’t this the best school in Magical Britain? Why do they let this guy teach?”

“Professor Slughorn used to say that there are only two things in Britain that have ever transcended death: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and Tenure.” Ophilia’s smirk widened into a grin. “And You-Know-Who only hid out for a while.”

******

Alexandra remained skeptical of Ophilia’s claims about History of Magic, but if it was a lie, she found it was a lie she wanted to believe. She had only two days left before her equivalency exam, so she decided to leave History of Magic and dedicate a day each to reviewing Herbology and Astronomy, the two core subjects she was least familiar with.

Ophilia was gone when Alex got out of the shower, but she returned shortly after with breakfast. Neither of them had any skill or interest in cooking, so Ophilia generally got take-out in Muggle London. She’d told Alex that she always Apparated to a distant part of the city to order meals, and never went to the same place twice. Even so, she passed a sneak-o-scope over their breakfast sandwiches before they dug in.

Alexandra had mostly studied in her own bedroom since they’d moved to the flat, but the day before she had found that the futon in the living room was easier on her wound than the desk chair in her room. So that day, she studied out in the common area, with Ophilia in the armchair reading and making notes from some auror training manual. They were settled like this for some time before Alexandra broke the silence.

“I still can’t believe they let second-years handle Mandrakes.” she muttered to herself with a hint of envy.

Ophilia glanced up. “Only juveniles. You don’t deal with the adults unless you take the NEWT.”

“Still though.” Alexandra sighed. “The most dangerous thing I saw in fourth-year Herbology was Magic Mistletoe. Isn’t it dangerous to even keep them in a school?”

Ophilia shrugged. “We brew de-transfiguration draughts from them in Advanced Potions. And they can be useful in other ways.”

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“Well, Professor Longbottom used them in the Battle of Hogwarts. He threw Mandrake pots out into the courtyard like grenades.”

“He…:” Alexandra’s voice trailed off.

Ophilia nodded, not looking up from her book. “Yes. I was in fourth year when Longbottom quit the aurors and started teaching. The Slytherins weren’t happy about it, as you can imagine, he orphaned some of them.”

“Professor Longbottom?” When Ophilia looked up, and saw the look on her face, she looked almost as surprised as Alexandra did.

“You didn’t know he was a war hero?”

“I mean… He said he was just hiding at Hogwarts, trying to survive or something.” She had actually been too distracted by anger and frustration at the time to pay much attention.

“Alright.” Ophilia closed her own book. “Put that away, the Mandrakes can wait. You need to learn some actual History of Magic.”

So Alexandra listened. First, she heard the bits of Neville Longbottom’s story that the young professor had left out. How he had led the resistance to the Death Eaters at Hogwarts while Voldemort was in power. How he had gathered the students of Hogwarts when Harry Potter returned, and led them into battle. How, when the Dark Lord declared that Harry Potter was dead, and demanded that the surviving defenders surrender, it was Neville Longbottom who came out, alone, to tell Voldemort to stuff it. How it was Neville Longbottom who pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat-

“Okay, seriously, what the hell _is_ the Sorting Hat?” Alexandra cut in.

Ophilia waved her hand, dismissively. “You’ll find out. Anyway, then Voldemort- or possibly Bellatrix, nobody’s sure- set Longbottom and the hat on fire. But he just reached into the hat, pulled out the Sword of Gryffindor and cut the snake’s head off. And that apparently weakened or hurt Voldemort somehow because he let out this huge echoing scream that everyone heard, which was when Professor Slughorn and the Slytherins returned with reinforcements and the battle was won.”

Alexandra sat back. Once again she was unsure whether she should believe this. Though when she thought about it, it did shed some light on some things. 

_‘The last man to call me ‘Boy’ was Lord Voldemort.’_

******

The next two days passed quicker than Alexandra expected. She made an honest effort to focus on revising, but she was easily distracted by conversations with Ophilia. 

The two of them had spoken little during the week in St. Mungo’s. Constant pain had made Alexandra somewhat antisocial, and Ophilia had seemed too focused on watching for threats to be drawn into idle conversation. But, now that her pain was less, and she felt at least somewhat safe behind the protection of the Fidelius Charm, Alexandra was starting to find that she enjoyed the older girl's company.

She had written letters to Anna and Julia while she was in St. Mungo’s, though she had little to write about since she didn’t feel like mentioning the attack, but their replies had not arrived yet. Since leaving the hospital she had been able to use her phone again and had discovered a backlog of increasingly concerned text messages from Anna asking where she was and what was happening. She had sent a reply saying that she was okay and had merely been staying at a place with no cellular service (technically true). There were no messages from Brian.

Alexandra was sitting in the living room with Charlie on the morning of the exam, attempting to squeeze in a few more minutes of Astronomy revision, when Auror Weasley arrived. The Auror Apparated into the entranceway and, with a mumbled “Good morning,” slumped into Ophilia’s usual armchair in the living room. The bags under his eyes, wrinkles in his robes and orange bristle on his jaw bespoke a long night.

“Merlin. You girls don’t have any coffee ready, do you?”

Alexandra shook her head. “Ophilia’s out getting breakfast, I could text her to get an extra-” she was cut off by a ‘popping’ sound of Ophilia Apparating into her bedroom.

Weasley sighed. “Thanks for the thought.”

Alexandra looked up as the bedroom door opened and Ophilia joined them. “What have we got?”

“Empanadas.” Ophilia walked over to the kitchenette and quickly scanned the brown paper bag she carried with the sneak-o-scope.

“You didn’t happen to get an extra coffee?” Weasley asked hopefully.

Ophilia looked up. “No, but I can get you some in a moment.” She pulled out her flask.

“Any word on Dearborn, or the goblins?” Alexandra asked.

Weasley sighed. “I can’t discuss the investigation, sorry.”

Alexandra frowned and looked back at her book. Ophilia spoke an incantation and the flask steamed as she poured fresh black coffee into a mug and handed it to Weasley.

“Merlin, I need to get me one of those.” He sipped. “Alright, nothing too dramatic happened since I last checked on you two?”

Alexandra and Ophilia shared a look before Ophilia answered. “Nothing to report.”

“Uh huh.” Weasley glanced at the panel flooring, which was visibly scratched where the coffee table had fallen during Alexandra and Ophilia’s duel. “Well, good to see you girls are thick as thieves now. I was worried things might get a little tense with you cooped up in here. Anyway-” He nursed his coffee some more. “- we’ve got two stops today. Ministry in the morning, then Diagon Alley in the afternoon. It’s easier to do it all in one trip than to try to arrange security for another day.”

“What security?” Alexandra asked.

Weasley gestured at himself and Ophilia. “You’re looking at it. Wish there was more but there’s a war going on.” He finished his coffee with a speed that must have scorched his throat. “Come on, time’s wasting.”

“Wait. What about the wand?”

“The- oh, right.” Weasley sighed. “I wish I had better news. The DMLE director wrote me a letter personally telling me to stuff it. That wand’s already been sent to next of kin.” The auror looked even more tired than he had before. “We’ll see what we can do this afternoon okay?”

Alexandra seethed with frustration, but she didn’t see any use in arguing further. She went into her room to pick up her backpack, which she had packed with all of her important possessions that morning in case she was unable to return to the flat, slip on her Seven-League Boots and pocketed the Yew Wand. Before she left she made sure she let Charlie out- Apparating with the bird was difficult but she wanted him to be able to make his way to her. 

As she was turning to leave she caught a glimpse of herself in Julia’s mirror. Even with the mirror’s typical rose-tinted view of her appearance, she looked pale. Her jaw and cheekbones stood out more than was healthy as well. Her week at St. Mungos had taken pounds off of her that she hadn’t had to spare and she still got stomach aches if she ate at a normal pace, so she was leaving many of her meals half-eaten.

“Don’t I look lovely today?” she asked the mirror.

“Better than yesterday!” it replied cheerfully.

Alexandra sighed and stepped back into the living room. She took Ophilia’s offered hand and the two of them Disapparated.

*****  
The three of them Apparated into a deserted alley in downtown London. Weasley and Ophilia quickly swept the area with spells Alexandra didn’t recognize before hurrying her into the street and towards what appeared to be a public washroom where Ophilia directed her into a stall. Alexandra was not amused to discover that entering the Ministry of Magic required getting flushed down a toilet. 

After a brief passage through what felt like a sewer pipe she emerged, thankfully dry, into a huge hallway with a row of fireplaces on either wall. As she watched, fireplaces along the wall to her left flashed bright green one by one and witches and wizards emerged, only to immediately step into a queue waiting to pass by a pair of DMLE wizards who scanned each with a sneakoscope. A similar, though much shorter, line stood along the right-hand wall, where a handful of people waited to be scanned before stepping into the fireplaces to depart. Weasley and Ophilia escorted Alexandra past the line, nodding to the DMLE guard who stepped forward to scan each of them with a Sneakoscope, before they passed into a wide atrium. Alexandra kept up with her escorts’ pace, though her leg was beginning to ache.

Alexandra’s eye was drawn to a fountain in the center of the room. Hewn of plain white marble, at first glance it appeared to be sculpted in the shape of a bed of spikes with water emerging from the tips until Alexandra realized that it was actually a forest of marble fists thrusting up from the water. Each fist held a stone wand pointed upwards and the water filling the fountain spurted from the tips of the wands. The basin of the fountain hid each arm below the elbow. Curious, Alexandra craned her neck for a clearer look, but Ophilia placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her towards an elevator bank on the opposite side of the atrium. The three of them again skipped the queue in front of the two public elevators and made a beeline for one marked ‘Authorized Personnel Only.’

Alexandra noticed the wizards in the line-up looking at her curiously and wished she’d brought her hooded cloak. “They’re going to think you’re arresting me aren’t they?”

Weasley snorted as he pulled open the old-fashioned brass grill on the elevator doorway. “No, if we were arresting you, they’d know it.” As Alexandra stepped into the elevator behind him she staggered and almost stumbled, catching herself against the rear wall of the elevator as her leg and back spasmed with pain. 

“Are you okay?” Weasley put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

“I’m fine!” Alexandra pushed his hand away, but immediately leaned back against the wall, wincing. “Just… a little slower maybe.”

Weasley and Ophilia exchanged glances, but said nothing more as the older auror slid the grill shut and pressed the button for the fifth level.

The elevator was a magical conveyance, despite it’s rickety appearance, and in moments they came to a stop and a disembodied female voice announced. “Level Five, Department of Magical Education. Incorporating the Hogwarts Board of Governors, Office of Curricula and Standards, Education Safety Bureau and Hogwarts and Hogsmeade Auror Division, Wizarding Examinations Authority, and Apprenticeship Program.”

Auror Weasley opened the grill again, and the three of them stepped out into another long hallway. Alexandra steadied herself against the doorway before taking some careful steps. 

The Department of Magical Education was hectic in the last week of August, with many witches and wizards crowding the main hallway and carrying packages back and forth. Above their heads, Alexandra saw what looked like purple paper airplanes fluttering back and forth between the various offices. They reminded her of the hall passes that they used at Charmbridge. The workers on this level didn’t seem particularly disturbed by the presence of the two aurors, and Alexandra saw Weasley exchanging waves with another man in an auror’s greatcoat emerging from the office marked “Hogwarts and Hogsmeade Auror Division.”

“Hogwarts has its own aurors?” Alexandra muttered to Ophilia with some apprehension.

“It’s new.” Ophilia replied, busy watching the crowd. “And, hopefully, temporary.”

Alexandra heard Weasley chuckle from just behind her. “This is the Ministry, rookie. No department is ever temporary.”

As the three of them made their way down the hallway Alexandra noticed a cluster of people gathered near an office at the far corner. About a dozen people stood in line outside of a door marked “Wizarding Examinations Authority.” As they came closer, Alexandra realized that several of those in line were her own age or younger. 

She saw two black boys side-by-side, neither of whom looked older than thirteen, standing quietly in the company of a woman in elaborate robes with gold trim who looked too old to be their mother. There were also a pair of older teenage girls. One was white and blonde and the other black but they otherwise had near-identical blue robes and elaborate braided hairstyles. Their heads were together, deep in conversation in what sounded like French. Two adult couples, apparently the girl’s parents, carried on an animated discussion of their own in the same language. A short distance from the two couples, she saw a tall, broad-shouldered boy with an impressive afro leaning against the wall. His hands were in the pockets of his red robes and he had a bored look on his face. Furthest from the door, she saw a stocky girl with cornrows, dressed in plain black school robes, who might have been Alexandra’s age. A woman in her thirties with a similar figure stood next to the girl, holding her hand and looking a little nervous. Aside from Alexandra, the woman was the only one present wearing Muggle clothing.

The crowd turned to look at her curiously as she approached the office, flanked by the aurors, and the chatter from the two girls and their families ceased. 

“Are you certain you have the right door?” Asked the tall boy, eyeing Auror Weasley and Ophilia. He had a deep voice with a drawling accent.

Weasley sighed and checked his pocket watch. “Six Fifty-Eight, almost spot on.” He gestured towards the queue. “We might as well get in line.”

Alexandra nodded, her eyes were on the tall boy, who met her stare levelly. She was careful not to limp as she leaned against the wall near the girl in black robes and her mother. 

Alexandra sighed in relief at the weight coming off of her leg. Even as she did, she felt a pull at the edge of her awareness. Looking back down the hallway the way they had come, she cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a loud caw that made the younger children jump. The sound was echoed from behind her as one of the elevators slid open and Charlie emerged, distracting busy wizarding bureaucrats and scattering paper aeroplanes as he flapped across the department to land on her outstretched arm.

“You found me.” She smiled.

“Merlin, always with the drama.” Weasley rubbed his palm against his forehead as he called down the hallway: “Just a party trick folks! Everything’s under control, nothing to see! Miss Quick-” his scowl didn’t quite wipe the smile off Alexandra’s face “-would you be so good as to get in line and not cause any more disturbances? Please and thank you.”

Alexandra ignored the auror, but she made no more noise as she pulled an owl treat from her backpack to give to Charlie. She stroked the bird’s feathers affectionately, noting the remaining marks from their battle with the goblins and wondering if the exercise had been difficult for Charlie as well. 

“Was that Sympathetic Summoning?”

Alexandra turned to see the heavy set girl next to her looking at her and Charlie curiously. The girl’s guardian looked on with a hint of concern but said nothing.

Alexandra shrugged, that wasn’t a term she recognized. “It’s just something we’ve been experimenting with.”

“You didn’t use your wand.” The girl commented. “How far away was it?”

Alexandra frowned as she glanced at her surroundings. “I’m not sure. I think there’s some wizard spacing in this building so it’s tough to say. He was outside the Ministry, though.”

“Really?” The other girl looked impressed. “I was able to summon Maximus to me from over a mile at school, but that was using my wand. I don’t think I could do it from more than the next room without it.”

“It’s just practice.” Alexandra repositioned Charlie onto her shoulder. “Honestly, I feel like Charlie does most of the work.”

“Fly! Fly!” Charlie agreed. The girls’ eyebrows rose.

“Are you from New Amsterdam?” She asked. “I didn’t think they taught sympathetic magic outside of Baleswood.” 

_Baleswood,_ Alexandra realized, feeling suddenly self-conscious. _Right, that makes sense._

“No, I didn’t go to New Amsterdam.” Alexandra glanced past the other girl and saw that the two boys at the front of their line were staring directly at her. The two girls were also speaking more quietly and shooting her not-so-covert glances, and even their parents seemed to be talking more quietly, carefully facing away from her. Only the tall boy did not seem disturbed or distracted by her presence- he seemed much more interested in Ophilia, whose back was turned as she spoke to Auror Weasley.

“Troublesome.” Charlie said.

Alexandra shushed the bird. She was grateful a moment later when the door opened and a gray-haired witch with black robes stepped out, carrying a clipboard in front of her.

“All of you are here for the Equivalency Examinations at Seven-Thirty AM?” She asked, not looking up from her clipboard. At the general murmur of assent, she continued, speaking by rote. “My name is Patricia Greensby, Senior Invigilator for the Wizarding Examination Authority. When I call your name, would you please step forward and present your identity documents. I can then direct you to the examination room and we can get started. The examination room is warded against scrying and communication magic, except for that used by our invigilators. Prior to entering the examination room, you will be required to submit your wand and any other magical items that you carry for safe storage during the examination, and to submit to inspection by Secrecy Sensor. Carrying any enchanted item or written material into the examination room will be considered cheating- yes?”

All eyes turned to Alexandra, who had raised her hand. “I need my wand and some other things for my own safety right now. You can ask those two if you need the details.” She pointed at Weasley and Ophilia. Weasley rolled his eyes and Ophilia sipped from her flask, not quite managing to hide a smirk. "If you like I could take, like, an Unbreakable Vow not to cheat if that would work.”

For a moment, Greensby just blinked. Then blinked again. After one failed attempt to reply she took a breath and then managed. “Excuse me, Miss…”

“Quick.”

“Miss Quick.” The witch checked the top parchment on her clipboard. “We do not use Unbreakable Vows at the Wizarding Examinations Office…”

“That was just an idea-”

“-and I’m not sure what you are used to in your country of origin but we take the security of both this exam and of its participants very seriously. I can assure you that you are perfectly safe. The Ministry is the most secure building in Magical Britain and your -er- escorts are here to provide whatever additional protection you may require.”

Alexandra looked at Weasley and Ophilia, hoping her skepticism didn’t show on her face. “So they’ll be in the examination room with me?”

Alexandra gathered from Greensby’s expression that this was a suggestion akin to bringing a loaded firearm with test answers inscribed on each bullet into the examination rooms. “Miss Quick, I assure you that our safety measures are entirely adequate and that we do not need to be taught our jobs by fifteen-year-olds.”

“Okay. So it’s secure against portkeys then?”

Greensby sputtered “What? There are no portkeys into the examination room, what are you-”

 _I’ll take that as a ‘no.’_ “Have the test papers been checked for curses?”

There was an audible gasp from the people around her. She saw the two boys at the front of the line step closer to the older woman accompanying them, who was glaring at Alexandra now. The girl Alexandra had spoken to earlier was visibly disturbed while the tall older boy was simply glancing back and forth between Alexandra and Greensby with an amused look.

“I’ll thank you to stop frightening the other students with these absurd scenarios, Miss Quick.” Greensby seemed to have found her groove and the surprise in her voice had transformed into firm scolding and indignation. “If the measures we take for the integrity of the examination are unacceptable to you, then you are under no obligation to submit to them, but you will not be able to attend schooling in Magical Britain.”

Auror Weasley stepped forward. “I’m sorry ma’am. Alexandra, we should have discussed this beforehand, but we did review their procedures when we scheduled this and the Auror Office is satisfied with security- that’s why we’re here.” He indicated himself and Ophilia. “We’ll be watching out here the whole time, you’ll be alright.”

Alexandra sighed, she hadn’t been expecting much support from that quarter, but she had hoped. 

“Fine.” She said. She stepped past Auror Weasley to stand in front of Ophilia. “Will you take Charlie for me? I don’t think they’ll let me bring him in.”

Ophilia’s expression was neutral. “Certainly.”

As Alexandra shifted Charlie onto her wrist and transferred the raven over to Ophilia, she muttered ‘ _Muffliato_ ,’ forcing the magic to work through the Yew Wands resistance.

“If Charlie says the word ‘Wicked,’ it means someone’s trying to kill me.” Alexandra said quietly, not trusting the Yew Wand to guarantee her privacy.

Ophilia raised an eyebrow, then nodded.

“Be good, Charlie.” Alexandra turned back to Greensby and the other students. “Sorry to interrupt.”

Greensby ran through the remainder of her lecture double time, informing them that the examination would be divided into three sections of two hours’ duration each with thirty-minute breaks in between. The first two sections would cover the core OWL subjects while the third would cover electives. The students would be permitted to opt out of elective subjects that they did not intend to study with no impact on the remainder of their mark. The students were to remain in the office for the entirety of the examination period and to have no interactions with guardians or other students during their breaks. 

Hearing no further questions or objections, the Examinations Authority Witch began reading names off of her clipboard. This turned out to take longer than expected.

“Hippo-light Adelard.”

“Hyppolite” Corrected the lighter-skinned of the two older girls. The younger children giggled as she stepped past a flustered Greensby to enter the office, showing a familiar-looking parchment with a purple Hogwarts seal on it as she went.

Greensby took her time with the next name. “La… Lazaire D’Angouleme?” This turned out to be the smallest of the three boys, who came forward silently and presented his visa. Next came “Nazaire D’Angouleme” who appeared to be the first boy’s older brother.

Greensby seemed relieved when she got to ‘Alexandra Quick’ and Alexandra stepped past her through the door. She found herself in a small lobby- so small that it was already crowded with herself and the three other students who had preceded her. Hyppolite Adelard had taken a seat in the only chair and was eyeing Alexandra appraisingly while Lazaire and Nazaire D’Angouleme seemed to be doing their best to stay as far away from Alexandra as possible. Apart from the chair, the room contained only an unoccupied office desk. Past the desk a slightly foreboding-looking hallway led deeper into the office.

“Osun Thomas.” Alexandra heard Greensby call out, carefully enunciating each syllable. The black girl who had been in conversation with Hyppolite stepped deftly past Alexandra to join her friend and the pair immediately resumed their conversation, still in French. Next came “Shango Thomas” who turned out to be the tall boy. When he saw Alexandra he gave a grin that stood out brilliant white against his skin.

“If the test frightens you, I would happily be your protector.”

Alexandra snorted, looking him up and down. “I’ll let you know if I need a meatshield.”

Outside, Greensby was having trouble with the final name. “Tuh-, T-show, Shaw-”

“T’shawna ma’am. T’shawna Villiers.” The last girl said. A moment later she entered the room behind them, followed by Greensby who shut the door behind her, leaving them with standing room only.

“If you all will follow me.” Greensby said shortly, pushing her way through the crowd to get to the hallway. Her brisk footsteps echoed on the stone floor as the seven students followed her. When they reached a three-way intersection they took a right, and shortly they came to a large, solid wooden door with a hefty bronze lock. 

The Ministry Witch produced an old-fashioned-looking key of the same material and opened the door into a mid-sized classroom. The room contained seven small wooden desks, arranged in three rows, and a larger desk at the opposite end oriented towards the door. Each of the small desks held an inkwell, a quill, and a sign with one of their names handwritten on it. The large desk was decorated with a large hourglass, its lower bulb full of white sand.

“The first section of the examination will begin in-” Greensby checked a pocket watch “-eight minutes. Those of you wishing to use the toilet beforehand should do so since you will not be able to until your break in two hours.” 

Alexandra didn’t need to use the bathroom, but she did need to change out of her magical clothing, so she headed in the direction Greensby pointed.

“If a monster attacks, just scream and I shall come to your rescue.” Shango called as he took his seat. Hyppolite and Osun giggled as they passed.

“Enough of that.” snapped Greensby.

Alexandra ignored them as she headed for the washroom- there was no time for a comeback. She went into a bathroom stall and shut the door.

She sighed as she opened her backpack, taking a seat on the toilet bowl lid to remove her Seven-League Boots. She did not have any sneakers or muggle footwear in her pack- she would have to wear her JROC boots. As she packed her cloak away, she remembered that she had her Lost Travellers Compass in her pocket. As she dug in the depths of the pack for the case, she touched a piece of metal she was not expecting and pulled it out. 

It was a swiss army knife, old, but barely used and still functional. Earlier in the Summer, she had spent a Saturday shopping in Larkin Mills for mundane camping supplies in case she ever had the need to hunt down a fugitive in Indian Territory again. When she’d returned in the evening (after a lengthy detour with Brian to the small area of woods near their old elementary school) she’d found the knife in a box left outside her bedroom door. She hadn’t brought it up afterwards to Archie or Claudia- no point in bringing attention to the fact that anything the knife could do, she could do easier with magic, especially in front of Claudia- but she had packed it away just in case and promptly forgotten about it.

She opened the knife attachment and tested the edge and point. She felt queasy for a moment, remembering the jarring feeling of resistance and the sudden, sickening warmth on her hands and arms. She blinked to clear her head, and took a long look at the blade. It was no goblin dagger, but she could imagine it sliding into a goblin’s eye. The thought came, unbidden that Shango Thomas’ stomach would be at just the right height for her.

She quickly folded the knife, then pulled out a hoodie and slid the knife into the roomy front pocket where it would be in easy reach but difficult to spot. Realizing she was running out of time, she dropped the compass into the bag carelessly and nearly ploughed into T’Shawna Villiers, who was washing her hands in the sink.

“Sorry.” Alexandra muttered as she headed for the door.

“I’m sorry they made fun of you.”

Alexandra paused at the door and looked back. The tap was still running but the other girl was looking at her.

“Nothing for you to be sorry for.” Alexandra said. “And I don’t actually care what they think of me anyway.”

T’shawna nodded. “I hope not.” She looked Alexandra in the eye. “I don’t know what happened at your school but, you know.” She sighed. “I think we all know that feeling, being scared all the time-” The girl froze at something in Alexandra’s expression.

“I’m not scared.” Alexandra said quietly. “Let them come at me whenever they want, you just keep your head down when they do.”

The other girl stared at her, shifting her posture slightly in a way that made Alexandra consider that, even were she not starved and limping, the other girl outweighed her by thirty pounds easily and probably had a working wand to boot.

Alexandra sighed and looked away. What was she thinking about? “Look I’m- I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound-” she ran a hand through her short hair. “Look just- good luck on your test.” She didn’t look back as she left the room.

“Examination starts in one minute, Miss Quick.” Greensby frowned as Alexandra returned to the examination room. A thin, middle-aged wizard in black robes similar to Greensby stepped towards her as she entered the room, holding a sneakoscope.

“I’m good then.” Alexandra held out her backpack and, reluctantly, pulled the yew wand from her pocket and handed it over to the man. “My boots have a water-repelling charm on them, but unless you want me barefoot…”

The man shrugged and ran his sneakoscope over the boots. When it made no sound, he stepped aside to let her reach her desk.

“Good Luck.” He said cheerfully as she passed him and he turned to scan T’Shawna. Alexandra didn’t look at the other girl as they sat down.

The two of them had hardly settled in their desks when there was a high, clear chime that seemed to emanate from nowhere and a bundle of parchment appeared in the center of each desk. Alexandra quickly looked up at the ceiling and placed her arm between her eyes and the parchment. She heard Shango snigger. Greensby, who had moved closer to the invigilator’s desk, picked up the Hourglass and turned it on its head. “You may begin.”

Alexandra avoided looking directly at the parchment at first, wary of any possible curses that might be triggered if she read it. Instead, she carefully inspected the package from an oblique angle, keeping her arm imposed between herself and the front of the test paper. After a minute of looking with Witch’s Sight Alexandra judged that further staring was unlikely to reveal any curses she had missed, so she moved on to inspecting the quill and inkwell. The inkpot had a refilling charm on it and the surface of the desk itself was also enchanted- she recognized a translocation charm which meant that the desk was likely paired with a second desk somewhere else nearby and items could be transferred between them using the charm.

She took a careful look around the room now with her Witch’s Sight, starting from the ceiling and going down. The walls and ceiling _were_ warded, though she couldn’t tell anything about them besides that they were completely different from those at St. Mungo’s or the Leaky Cauldron. As she glanced at the other kids she saw that she was not the only one who had been allowed a practical magic item- Osun and Shango in particular looked as though they owned hardly any clothing without some form of minor glamour or cleaning charm on it. 

“Eyes on your own paper, Miss Quick.” Greensby said from the front.

As a final reassurance, she closed her eyes and reached out with her awareness until she found Charlie. Whatever wards were built into the chamber, she could feel her familiar clearly. Charlie was only a few yards away, directly ahead from where she sat with her back to the door. The raven was distracted watching the shiny enchanted paper airplanes fly overhead. She felt Ophilia’s shoulder through the raven’s talons as Charlie squeezed on the trainee auror’s thick coat.

With this final confirmation, she flipped the examination open.

******

“How’d it go?” Ophilia asked as Alexandra stepped out of the Examinations Office nearly eight hours later.

Alexandra shrugged, weary. “We’ll find out.”

“Jolly Good.” said Charlie.

Alexandra blinked and stared at Charlie, who she now realized was perched on the back of Weasley’s chair. The auror grinned and passed the raven a few chunks of some kind of pastry that Charlie gobbled greedily.

“What did you do?” Alexandra asked indignantly, stepping forward and gathering Charlie into her arms.

“Just teaching the lad some of the local dialect.” Weasley stood up, brushing the front of his robes off. “He’s a quick study when doughnuts are involved.”

Alexandra glared at him, then at Charlie.

“It don’t signify.” Charlie said apologetically.

Alexandra turned back to Weasley and Ophilia. “Can we go?”

“Sure. You might want to do something about that knife before we go through security, though.” Weasley turned to Ophilia as Alexandra froze. “Good to go?”

“If you don’t mind, I need to drop by the aviary on the way out.” Ophilia answered.

Alexandra looked over her shoulder. “Hang on a moment, guys.”

Most of the other students had already passed by and joined their parents but she saw T’shawna Villiers stepping out near the rear of the crowd.

Alexandra stepped towards her. “Hey, T’shawna.”

The other girl jumped a little as she turned towards Alexandra. Alexandra raised her hands. 

“Sorry, I just... look, did it go okay?”

T’shawna glanced at Charlie and seemed to relax slightly. “It was okay, I guess. The multiple choice section on charms was kind of…”

“Frustrating? Like when they ask you to pick an incantation for a sticking spell and offer you four spells you’ve never heard of and none of the three spells you’ve learned that can do the same thing?”

T’shawna snorted “Yeah, like that one. Or the short answer question about what creature is repelled by a patronus charm. I guess no one here’s ever heard of a Lethifold.”

Alexandra frowned. “I put Chindi, what was it supposed to…” She realized something. “You’re in fifth year?”

“Yeah. You too? Which electives?”

Alexandra shrugged. “Well, assuming they let me in: Arithmancy, Magizoology, Divination.”

T’shawna grinned. “I knew you were a Wyrm. See you in arithmancy then.”

“Yeah, maybe we’ll both be in Raven Wing or Griffon Claw or something.”

They both laughed as T’shawna went to meet her mother and Alexandra turned around to see Weasley regarding her with indignation.

“What?”

“It’s ‘Gryffindor’.”

Ophilia snorted.

******  
After returning to the flat for lunch, Ophilia and Weasley changed into plainrobes and the three of them Apparated to Diagon Alley, appearing at a designated apparition site where they went through yet another inspection by DMLE wizards before stepping into the street.

Alexandra looked around. The street was quieter than she had expected, and some of the shops appeared to have closed up early. Near the end of the block she could see a larger marble building with a sign saying “Gringotts” above the entrance. As they came closer she could see that a security barrier had been placed in front of the entrance, manned by a mix of wizards and goblins wearing medieval-style plate armour. She eyed them warily as they passed.

“Is there a Colonial Bank of the New World here?” she asked.

“They’ve got an office.” Ophilia replied. “It shouldn’t be too busy, do you need to go there first?”

“Yes. Bank, then wand, then whatever else.”

The small CBNW branch was nearly empty when Alexandra went to withdraw some wizard gold. The teller gave Alexandra an odd look when she handed over the money, which made Alexandra wonder if she knew who had established the account.

The tension that she had been feeling all day with every step outside of the flat was beginning to turn to eagerness, with a shadow of trepidation, as they headed for the wand shop.

When Alexandra saw the shop, she stopped. It was a small, one-level business with apartments above it. The front was painted black with a sign above the door in silver letters that read: _Karait: Wandcrafters_. Alexandra’s mood fell when she saw another sign hung below: _Due to low stock, Wand Matches cannot be Guaranteed._ A DMLE witch stood guard directly outside the door. She exchanged nods with Weasley.

“Karait: Wandcrafters.” Alexandra turned to Ophilia. “Your family?”

“Yeah, they bought the business from old Olivander after he retired.” Weasley was the one who answered. “The Ministry had to practically beg to get decent Wandcrafters to move in so soon after the war. Pissed off the Malfoys and the other old-money ponces to no end though.” He sounded cheerful.

“Why?” Alexandra asked, confused. 

Ophilia sighed. “Some were upset to see a family of English wandcrafters that had operated for centuries ‘replaced’ by foreigners.”

“Idiots.” Weasley snorted as he held open the door to let them through. “If the colour of their wand-maker mattered so much to them they should have gotten after Olivander to spend less time making wands and more time using his while it still worked. That’s the issue with a ‘Family Business’ isn’t it? If you’ll pardon the pun.”

The shop was clean, well-organized and nearly empty. Two-and-a-half walls of the shop were covered in shelves of dark wood that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, full of neatly-labeled drawers. There was a clear area in the center which was surrounded by several long mirrors and magical devices that Alexandra didn’t recognize. A counter near the entrance was manned by a young Indian woman dressed in blue robes. Another DMLE wizard stood inside the door.

“Afternoon, Padma.” Weasley shut the door behind them. “How’s business?”

“Better than it might seem.” the witch answered absently, writing something in a ledger. She looked up and her eyes widened in recognition. “Ophilia! Your parents are out taking cuttings, they didn’t tell me you’d be visiting.”

“It’s okay. I knew they were busy.” Ophilia nodded towards Alexandra. “We’ve got a new Hogwarts student who needs to get matched.”

“I see.” Padma smiled politely at Alexandra but couldn’t hide her puzzlement. “Family of yours, Ron?”

Weasley laughed. “Friend of a friend of a friend, from America. But she mislaid her wand with what happened at her old school so we thought-”

“Of course, of course. Terrible news out of the Confederation, lately.” Padma said hurriedly as Alexandra frowned at the auror. 

Padma first got Alexandra to stand in the center of the room and take some readings with the various pieces of equipment. She measured Alexandra’s height, and the length and circumference of each of her arms, then did some kind of test involving the mirrors that Alexandra couldn’t quite follow before looking at her through what looked like a short telescope.

“What was your previous wand core?” She asked as she wrote something down.

“Chimaera Hair.”

“Really?” Padma looked up. “Did you get that from Finsterholtz? He’s the only master I know of who works with it.”

“Yeah, he’s really something.” Alexandra replied with a hint of bitterness.

“Well we don’t have any Chimaera hair wands in stock.” Padma reviewed her measurements and frowned. “We’re clearly looking for a hair core for you.” She looked at the shelves. “Thing is, most of the hair cores we have are Unicorn Hair.”

Alexandra shrugged. “I could try Unicorn Hair.”

“Ah- yes. Indeed you could try.” Padma glanced down at her notes again. “You could certainly try those out but- hmm let’s see.” She walked over to the shelves opposite the entrance. “Where’s that Kelpie hair…”

As Padma started handing her wands to try, Alexandra quickly realized that most of the drawers on the shelves were empty. Padma tried her first with a Kelpie hair wand she pulled from the shelf. When Alexandra waved it a single, desultory spark emerged from the tip.

Padma pursed her lips. “Hmm. That’s all we’ve got for hair right now besides Unicorn.”

“I’d be good with Unicorn Hair!”

“Alright, don’t get discouraged we can try Unicorn hair…”

******  
When Alexandra and Ophilia Apparated back at the flat a few hours later, Alexandra’s bag carried a dozen new textbooks, several sets of plain black school robes, and a years’ worth of alchemical ingredients. But no new wand. She had tried more than a dozen wands with Unicorn Hair cores, none of them had emitted even the spark that she had gotten from the Kelpie hair. When they had no luck with Unicorn, Padma had allowed her to try wands with cores of Dragon Heartstring, Yeti Fur, Acromantula Fang, and one with a Rakshasha horn that produced some sparks, but none of them gave her results that were even as good as the mediocre Yew Wand.

Alexandra sighed, pulling out the Yew Wand. “I guess I’d better get practicing with this.”

She turned to Ophilia, to see that the older girl was looking at her with an odd smile. “What?”

“Have you ever had Butter Chicken?”

Alexandra frowned at the non-sequitur. “Is that some kind of magical chicken that’s made out of butter or something?”

Ophilia smiled wider. “I’ll be back.” Then she Disapparated.

Alexandra glared at the space where Ophilia had vanished. Then she headed to her room to open a window for Charlie.

She was lying on the futon reading _Hogwarts: A History_ , when a pop and a mouth-watering smell announced Ophilia’s arrival.

Alexandra sat up as Ophilia placed several bags on the kitchen counter. “Is there any particular reason why no one will tell me what the Sorting Hat is?”

Ophilia laughed. “Because it’s fun to watch you squirm not knowing how you’ll be assigned to a House.” She looked at Alexandra. “Can you get us some plates?” As Alexandra complied, she continued. “Don’t worry it’s just a tradition, and it’s not like knowing would actually help. I didn’t know before I got to Hogwarts and here I am: Prefect, Special Award for Services to the School...”

“Weren’t you in Slytherin?”

“Of course, just as you will be.”

Alexandra nearly dropped the plates in surprise. Then she glared at the other girl. “Says who? Because of my father?”

Ophilia laughed again. “Says three goblins in your hotel room, little one.”

Alexandra put the plates down and stared at Ophilia. She felt a lump growing in her throat and she couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice. “So, what? I’m Dark now, I’m just a killer so I might as well be in Slytherin?”

“You’re a survivor, _we’re_ survivors, where any of the ‘Griffonclaws’ or ‘Ravenwings’ would just be corpses. Because they’re brave as can be when it’s a matter of showing off how brilliant they are, or of telling the world how much they hate the Dark Arts or how when Voldemort took power _they_ would have been the ones in the vanguard risking life and limb, no question.” Her laughter was less pleasant now. “They’re even braver when it’s half a dozen of them stringing a Slytherin girl up upside down in the Entrance Hall. But when you’re alone, and unarmed, there’s a goblin waiting to cut your throat if you so much as breathe?”

She leaned forward and met Alexandra’s eyes. “When the curses are flying, and the knives are out, there is nothing but you, and the other guy, and the people you’re protecting. Let them call you dark because you did what it took to survive. You wouldn’t get any credit for playing fair or using the ‘right’ spells if it had been you that died. You and whoever else those bastards would have killed by now if you hadn’t put them out of our misery. So to Hell with them. Slytherins don’t bother with formalities, or niceties or after-the-fact. We just do what needs to be done.”

Ophilia turned and reached into another bag she had brought. “For instance, when some idiot bureaucrat tells us that a perfectly good wand is going to sit in a drawer when it could be killing goblins, we don’t tend to take that for an answer.” 

She pulled a familiar wand from the bag. Alexandra recognized the reddish tint from the night at the Leaky Cauldron. She stared, speechless, as Ophilia handed her the wand, handle first.

“They don’t have Houses at Beauxbatons, but I suspect Dominic Souchon and his family would have been Slytherins. He went missing last year after a bombing in Brest. It looks as though SCOURGE kept his wand for their purposes. When I wrote to his parents to let them know the circumstances of its recovery and your own situation, they felt that leaving it with you would be a better service to their son’s memory than burying it in an empty grave.”

Alexandra took it and felt the familiar charge run up her arm, setting her heart pounding and making her feel briefly lightheaded. She felt warm, a good warmth that spread out from her core to the tips of her fingers. After a moment the pulsations of the wand seemed to fall into step with her heartbeat, and it faded to the corner of her awareness, but the warmth persisted.

She lifted the wand, without turning and said “ _Locomotor._ ” 

From behind her, she heard a scraping on wood as the two chairs they kept in the corner of the room, slid across the floor to position themselves neatly behind herself and Ophilia. The two of them sat down, Alexandra not taking her eyes off the wand.

“What are its stats?” She asked.

Ophilia raised an eyebrow. “Stats?”

“What’s it made of, what’s in it?”

“Ten and a quarter inches, Rosewood, Veela hair core.”

“Veela Hair.” The rich pigment in the wood was actually quite beautiful.

“Good for hexing, a little temperamental.” Ophilia shrugged. “Or so my mother tells me.”

She looked at Ophilia again. “Thank You.”

“You’re welcome.” Ophilia began to dish out the chicken.

She thought about what Ophilia had said. “Everyone always assumes that I’m Dark. That I support my father, that everything I accomplish is because of him, and that every time something bad happens I’m the one that started it.”

“And they always will.” Ophilia replied. “That’s why you just have to prove, again and again, that you’re better than those idiots at everything, until they have no choice but to let you save their worthless hides. Fortunately, being better than them isn’t hard.”


	9. Appearances

It was just before quarter-to-ten on September the First when the fireplace at the Potter residence on Mallory Lane suddenly burst to life with green flames and Teddy Lupin stumbled out onto the living room rug. The room was deserted, which gave him a moment to wipe the dust from his face before he was startled by a girl’s voice.

“Teddy! Maman, Teddy’s here!”

He turned towards the doorway that led into the kitchen to see Victoire Weasley regarding him with a wide smile.

“Hi Teddy!” he heard James calling from the kitchen.

As he blinked, his aunts Fleur and Ginny stepped out of the kitchen to greet him. He could glimpse little three-year-old Lily peeking from behind Victoire. He focused his gaze firmly on Ginny, as he’d begun to find Fleur a little distracting lately.

“Good Morning.” He said, stepping forward. “Uh, Grandma says hello.”

“Hold on, don’t move! Stay right there.” Ginny drew her wand. “ _Scourgify._ ”

Teddy felt a sensation like being buffeted by wind as most of the dust that was layered on him was blasted into non-existence. He reached up to smooth his hair.

“Oh, you already stepped on the carpet.” Ginny sighed, stepping past him and kneeling to inspect the green tracks he’d left. “These ruddy travel restrictions, it would be so simple if we could just broom or apparate but _no_...”

“Um… sorry.” Teddy turned back towards Fleur and- no- Victoire, definitely looking at Victoire. “Where’s Harry?”

“Harry and Papa went upstairs to talk.” Victoire answered.

“Actually, they should get down here so we can get this show on the road.” Ginny said, still focused on the carpet.

“We’ll go get them!” Victoire, who had snuck up behind Teddy while he was distracted, grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the staircase.

When they came to the staircase Teddy tugged on Victoire’s hand, bringing her to a stop. When she looked at him quizzically, he put his finger to his lips, and began creeping quietly up the stairs as Victoire followed him, intrigued.

As they reached the landing he heard a faint murmur through the wall, coming from Harry’s office. He felt like he could almost make out words but whenever he did there was a crackling buzz, like the static which was the only sound Kai could get his Muggle wireless to make at Hogwarts. He recognized a _Muffliato_ charm at work and, even as he made his way towards Harry’s office door, he dug a bundle of what looked like fleshy, pink string from his pocket.

Crouching by the doorway, he unwound the extendable ear and tried to feed it through the space under the door, and froze in terror when the ear shot back across the hallway and struck the opposite wall with a barely audible _’plink’_.

Teddy took a deep breath and glanced over his shoulder at Victoire, who was covering her mouth with one hand while watching him with rapt attention.

He supposed he should have anticipated the Impervious Charm on the door. Teddy was almost ready to give up and knock on the door when a thought occurred to him. 

_The Impervious Charm wouldn’t stop me from knocking._

He looked at the door frame for a long moment, then glanced back at Victoire, who was still standing frozen..

He sighed quietly and lowered himself onto his stomach, pressing his left ear against the bottom of the door frame as he _stretched_ with muscles he could never quite explain to anyone who wasn’t a Metamorphmagus. He elongated the auricle to slip it under the door frame, stretching it further and just a little further. The mumbled almost-voices were getting louder, but no clearer. The _Muffliato_ effect was all-or-nothing, he just needed to get within...

“...it’s about appearances Bill, it always is with him.” Teddy heard Harry’s voice, suddenly clear and devoid of static.

“Bugger that, Harry. Really. Every bloody Sunday in the _Prophet_ he goes on about all the arrests he, by which he means _we_ , made last Summer. Well how the hell do you think that happened? Because Gringotts’ management and most of the rest of goblins assumed SCOURGE was done after Hogwarts. They told us where the bad guys were and we caught them. Then a quarter of the Board of Directors gets strung up with their throats slit and all of a sudden the leads dry up and we’re chasing shadows into exploding _fucking_ holes while no Wizard outside of London is safe to walk home at night! We haven’t made an actual arrest in weeks, some fucking American teenager just took out more SCOURGE goblins in one night than the DMLE has since July-”

Teddy’s mouth fell open in horror at his Uncle Bill’s words. Or, more specifically, his choice of words.

“... but hey, we can always arrest our allies for getting the weapons they need to defend themselves right?”

“We offered the Gringotts Board auror protection, Bill.”

“Yeah great, maybe we can replace all the Minister’s security with Goblins while we’re talking appearances.” Bill laughed bitterly.

“They were importing firearms-”

“They’re getting shot at with firearms Harry! Unless you’re volunteering to charge a machine-gun with a ruddy axe.”

“You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know you’re right? You think if it were up to me…”

“You need to talk some sense into him Harry,” Bill cut in. “he can’t cross you publicly…”

“I’m just the head of the Auror Office. I don’t have standing to go barging into the Minister’s Office, ‘Chosen One’ or not. I even tried to-” Harry stopped. For a moment Teddy worried that he’d somehow been discovered.

“You what?” Bill asked.

“Never mind. Let’s just say investigatory discretion only goes so far when one’s department leaks like a sieve.”

“Merlin, Harry.” Bill sounded impressed.

“He’s got me, Bill.” Harry sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if I should just quit. Maybe if he wasn’t looking over his shoulder at me all the time he could spare a thought to the people trying to blow our kids up.”

“Maybe we should.” Bill answered quietly. “I mean, what are we really accomplishing when we have to answer to that clown? If not now, when?”

Harry laughed bitterly. “Bill, you don’t get it. There’s no bottom, it can always get worse, always. This is what the war looks like with you keeping the channels open to Gringotts and me riding my aurors to chase down every lead they give us. And, yeah, the leads are mostly shite. Nobody’s willing to point us in a direction that will lead us to actual arrests, but we’re still stopping the attacks, they haven’t pulled anything really major since the Knight Bus.” 

There was a long pause, and Teddy heard Harry take a deep breath. “The second I’m out it’ll be Dawlish in my chair and Amos Diggory in yours and half the DMLE will switch to ransacking Gringotts branches for, I dunno, guns, wands, evidence of conspiracy, SCOURGE sympathizers. And they’ll find it, because we both know the Gringotts goblins go to the same pubs as the SCOURGE blokes. That’s why we need their help so bloody much. They’ll find a bunch of pretty gold to confiscate too. And then this turns into a real Goblin Rebellion. We’ll be running the same script as 1752 and 1612 only with C4 and machine guns instead of swords and muskets.” He paused again. “Hermione’s gotta pull this off, that’s all there is to it.”

“Hermione. Or-”

“We’re not having that discussion again, Bill.” Harry sounded even more weary than before. “Listen, there’s something I do need from you, something that might actually get us somewhere. Do you know the goblin who was buying the guns?”

“Kelnozz? Not personally. I know his mother’s-side third cousin who’s on the Board. Why?”

“I looked at the weapons we seized from him, some of the sources looked familiar from the automatics we’ve been picking up from SCOURGE since last year. What do you think the odds are he picked up his contact from someone in SCOURGE?”

“Pretty high. It was never proven but it’s pretty much known that his useless deadbeat youngest brother was one of the ones Teddy buried under the Forbidden Forest last year. I doubt Kelnoz is actually _in_ SCOURGE but he knows where they hang their hats.”

“Great, maybe we can make something out of this mess after all. I can’t make the seizure go away. Travers needs something to splash in the _Prophet_ and no Power of Earth or Heaven can deny him a headline. But tell your friend on the board that I can make this go away for his cousin if he can give me the supplier on the automatics. Even Travers will sign off on it, if I can promise more guns on the table down the line.”

“You’re looking for the Muggle side?”

“The American side. I’m less and less sure there _is_ a… bloody hell. Teddy!”

Teddy started and began to shift away from the door, dragging his long, tubular ear behind him as he stumbled backward into Victoire and the office door swung inward to reveal his Uncle Bill. Somehow, Teddy had never truly appreciated how terrifying Bill’s scarred visage was. He even heard Victoire squeak behind him as her father glared at them, his wand pointed to the ground at his side. Harry stepped out behind Bill and shook his head.

“Merlin, Teddy is this really how you wanted to start your year?”

Bill knelt until he was eye-to-eye with Teddy. “I could Obliviate him.”

Harry sighed. “We’re not Obliviating them.”

Victoire let out a terrified gasp. “Don’t hurt him! Anything Teddy did, _I_ helped him…”

“You sure?” Bill looked up at Harry. “Bet we just wipe out the last five minutes, zero chance of any lasting damage- well.” He looked back at Teddy. “Nothing worse than whatever’s there already.”

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. “Enough.” He knelt down in front of Teddy.

Bill snorted, stepping past Teddy. He took a firm grip on Victoire’s hand and pulled her along after him. “Ron did say you’re always the good cop. Come on, Vicky.”

She shrieked. “Don’t call me ‘Vicky’!”

“On days when you pull this kind of bollocks, you’re Vicky. Meet you in the car, Harry.”

Harry had turned to his office doorway, inspecting the frame. “You know if you’d tried that at my office at the Ministry we’d be taking you to St. Mungo’s right now.”

“I was just-”

“Yeah, I know.” Harry stood up, pulling Teddy back into the office with him and shutting the door. Teddy had never been in Harry’s office before. It had a different decor from the rest of the home, more like a traditional wizarding house, with dark paneling and carved dragon claws and gargoyle’s heads in odd places. Harry’s desk took up much of the space, its surface covered with stacks of parchment, an issue of the Daily Prophet, and an enchanted typewriter. The room also had its own hearth, where a cauldron filled with thick, muddy potion bubbled over low flames. Teddy saw an old textbook labeled ‘ _Advanced Potion-Making_ ’ lying open on the mantelpiece. Teddy’s eye was drawn by a tall, narrow safe standing in the corner behind the desk, and to a plastic stand next to it that held a rigid, gray vest of a type he had not seen before.

“ _Colloportus_ ” Harry pointed his wand at the door, which briefly glowed blue as the lock clicked. 

“ _Repello Vermis._ ” Harry said, and thick, golden smoke emitted from his wand as he moved it in a wide semi-circle about the room. Only after Harry re-cast his _Muffliato_ charm and pocketed his wand did he speak to Teddy again.

“Listen to me very carefully. I am not going to Obliviate you, though in all honesty I probably should. Nor will I ask you to swear any kind of magical oath. But what you heard must not be repeated to anyone, and that includes Kai, Dewey and Violet. It is not gossip to be shared with your friends, it is a secret that Bill and I are trusting you with.”

Teddy frowned, massaging his ear as it shrank back into something like its normal dimensions. It was still tender where Bill had stepped on it. “You were talking about the Minister right? Why don’t you just tell everyone he’s an-”

“Because it would do more harm than good. The time will come for speaking frankly, soon, but in the meantime I am trying to keep you and everyone else in Magical Britain safe and that means I need to be able to work with the Minister. If what you heard here reaches the wrong people, it will make my job harder. It will make Bill’s job harder. And lives depend on us being able to do our job.”

Teddy bristled. “So you don’t trust people to make the right decision if they knew the truth? You have to decide for them?”

Harry didn’t rise to the bait. “I’m trying to catch the ones killing people, Teddy. In order to catch them, I need to keep my plans secret from them. All I’m asking is that you make sure they stay in the dark.”

“By not telling anyone about you hating your boss?”

“By not talking about anything that you heard. You want me to trust you, show me that you can be trusted.”

Teddy looked at the floor. “What was that you were talking about… goblins buying guns?”

Harry sighed. He picked up a broadsheet from among the papers on his desk and handed it to Teddy. The headline read: “GRINGOTTS IMPLICATED IN SMUGGLING MUGGLE WEAPONS.” 

“You can read it in the car.” Harry said as he stepped towards the door.

*****

On Violet Parkinson’s first visit to King’s Cross, two years before, she had been accompanied only by her mother. On that day there had been hardly any security to speak of, just an excited, mostly cheerful, though sometimes sad crowd of several hundred witches and wizards crowding the platform, bidding their children goodbye for the school year. Violet’s main memory was of how she and her mother had formed a small, bitter island in the crowd. Pansy Parkinson had drawn resentful and disgusted looks from nearly everyone, and had responded mostly by whispering bitter comments in her daughter’s ear.

Her mother had accompanied her on her second visit to King’s Cross too, only a few months after Slipfang’s attack on Hogwarts. The crowd had been smaller. Emergency regulations were in place allowing each child to be accompanied by a maximum of one adult to allow the DMLE to better control the scene, but the lack of family members was more than made up for by the dozens of aurors and DMLE wizards patrolling the perimeter, inspecting luggage, and questioning people seemingly at random. The questioning had been too much for her mother, who had screamed at the DMLE wizard asking to check her bag with a sneakoscope until she had been escorted out by an auror. Violet had walked quietly with her mother back out into Muggle King’s Cross to say goodbye before hurrying through security again to get to the train.

Today, it was her father who took her hand, carrying her trunk in the other, as they stepped through the concrete barrier that separated Muggle King’s Cross from the compressed Wizard Space of Platform Nine and Three Quarters. The restrictions of the previous year had been relaxed slightly to allow up to two adults to accompany each child to see them off on the Hogwarts Express, but the number of Ministry Wizards had also been cut by more than half, so that the Platform seemed less crowded overall than Violet could remember seeing it. A second concrete barrier had been installed, between the train platform and the entrance from King’s Cross, with half a dozen gates where queues were forming for security checks. She and her father stepped quietly into line to pass a Ministry Wizard bearing one of the Sneakoscopes that had become so ubiquitous. Violet smiled when she saw the device.

“It’s one of yours.” she said, pointing. 

“I should hope so. We provided over three hundred units to the Ministry at cost just last month.” Draco Malfoy did not look where his daughter pointed, he was distracted scanning the platform and appraising the Ministry Security. 

They had spoken over dinner the previous night about how he had purchased a controlling interest in Auror’s Eye Abjuration shortly before the attack on Hogwarts. In the past year, the (sometimes literally) exploding market in secrecy sensors and dark detectors that had accompanied the ongoing goblin insurgency had come close to restoring the Malfoy family fortune to its previous peak between the two Wizarding Wars.

Draco frowned when his gaze settled on several witches and wizards in position along the security barrier, dressed in normal robes rather than Ministry Uniforms but with Phoenix badges showing prominently on their chests. Violet thought she recognized one witch from Diagon Alley a few weeks before. She noticed several of the Order of the Phoenix members eyeing her and her father suspiciously as the Ministry Wizard inspected them and waved them along.

They drew more suspicious and hostile looks from the crowd as they walked, though Violet thought there might have been fewer than there had been in previous years. Violet followed her father’s example by keeping her head high (metaphorically- she was well shy of five feet tall) and her face stoic as they moved through the crowd towards the train.

As they approached the edge of the platform, the crowd shifted slightly and Violet noticed a group of students she did not recognize. Three older teens- a tall, broad black boy and two girls, one black and the other white and blonde- were standing close to one another waiting to step onto the ramp to board the train. The two girls were speaking to each other loudly in what Violet belatedly recognized as French- though so thickly accented that Violet could barely understand the words despite their exclamations and gesticulations. The boy, who stood slightly apart from them carrying a trunk, was glancing over the crowd with a bored look on his face.

“More from the Confederation.” Draco had followed his daughter’s gaze.

It took Violet a moment to make the connection. “From Balesood?” Violet remembered reading that the Enemy of The Confederation had destroyed another American wizarding school just this summer.

“Yes.” her father sighed. “I imagine Hogwarts is getting crowded.”

A dozen young witches and wizards from the Confederation had joined the Hogwarts student body the previous year, most of them former students of New Amsterdam Academy whose parents had sought to move them out of the country when their previous school had been destroyed by Dark Wizards.

“I’m surprised they’d want to come here, considering.” Violet said, glancing back at the security barriers.

“I’d imagine there’d be even more coming if Britain didn’t have… difficulties of her own.” Her father sighed. “Small favors. But evidently there are some who would prefer to take their chances with the goblins rather than whatever is hunting them back home.”

Violet frowned and looked around for any more new faces who looked too old to be first years. She stopped when she recognized an unexpectedly familiar one. Ophilia Karait was standing along the edge of the platform. Violet had never seen the former prefect dressed as a Muggle before and the girl’s blouse, jeans and jacket took her by surprise. Violet was more surprised to see her accompanied by a pale girl who did not look like any relation of the Karaits.

The unfamiliar girl was on the tall side for her age, which Violet judged to be about fifteen. She was dressed in boots, jeans and a baggy, hooded sweater, none of which concealed how thin she was. She had straight, black hair which fell in a simple, symmetrical curtain hanging just about shoulder length and she looked… unsettling. She had a strong nose, high cheekbones and a sharp chin that, with her pallor and lack of body fat, made her look almost skeletal. But her feverishly bright green eyes were alive and alert as she surveyed the crowd around her with a defiant look. In her left hand she carried a cage, holding a large raven the same pitch black as her hair and her right hand was in the pocket of her sweater, tense and clearly clutching a wand.

Violet involuntarily looked away when the girl’s gaze turned in their direction. She looked up at her father. “There’s uh… another new girl over there. Do you think she’s from Baleswood too?”

“No.” Draco knelt so that their eyes were even. “Violet. I hesitate to say this, as I am aware that a child your age might feel the urge to do precisely the opposite of what her father tells her. But, with that in mind, let me say that it would not be wise to associate, or to be associated with that girl.”

Violet’s eyes widened. “Who is she?”

Draco put his hand on her shoulder. “Do not be frightened, dear. She will not hurt you and she bears us no malice. But you must understand. Our family has a certain history, as you know. That history can produce opportunities but also obligations and liabilities. She is one of those. She is not our enemy but it would be better if the public did not associate us, and if you were far away from any trouble she might have brought with her from America.”

Violet did not like to think about her family’s _history_. And she had felt a fear when looking in the girl’s eyes that did not feel quite natural. She stole a glance over her shoulder only to see that boarding had started and the girl and her bird had vanished onto the train.

Violet turned back to look at Draco. “I- I have had a very pleasant time this summer. Living with you, I mean. Father.”

He smiled and, unexpectedly, pulled her into a hug. She stiffened, very briefly, then returned it.

“You know that you are always welcome with us.” He murmured. “You are my daughter, Malfoy Manor will always be a home for you.”

Violet blinked as he released her, trying to regain her composure. She started when she heard a man’s voice.

“Well said, Mr. Malfoy.”

She turned to see a tall, older man, in a brown dragonhide jacket over black robes, with a phoenix badge on his chest. He was standing behind her, uncomfortably close, but his blue eyes were locked on her father. His smile did not at all diminish the intensity of his gaze.

Draco glared at the man as he stood, stepping between Violet and the stranger. “Who in Merlin’s name-”

“Pardon me if I have offended. It is simply good to see a man who shows such care and compassion for his natural children. A lesser wizard might choose to sweep such things under the rug, but your concern for the safety of your offspring does you credit.”

Draco paled as his face grew increasingly livid. “That is enough, you will tell me who-”

“Ah, forgive my rudeness again. It seems I have the advantage.” The stranger held out his hand. “Caradoc Dearborn at your service.”

Draco froze. His hands at his sides.

Dearborn’s smile faded for just a moment, his eyes flitting back and forth as though inspecting and relishing every detail of the younger man’s reaction. “Aye. I thought Lucius might have mentioned an old school chum.” He broke his gaze, turning to look at the red train engine which had begun to spew smoke. “You know it’s been- Merlin- forty-odd years now since I last stood in this place. It’s changed, but not as much as you might think.”

Violet frantically looked around. The crowd was moving around the three of them, but she noticed that there were two more wizards with the Order of the Phoenix badges standing nearby. She saw the same hatred in their eyes as they regarded her father as she had felt from the crowd earlier, only hotter and closer to the surface. They were not moving.

Her father had still not spoken again, so Dearborn continued. “It was here that I last saw your father, actually. Well, him and your grandfather. Pity about old Abraxas. Your father and I weren’t exactly the closest at school, you understand. Different Houses. That, and I may have smashed a bludger into his pretty face one too many times.” Dearborn laughed heartily. “So you can imagine my surprise. Here we were: Myself, my father, my little brothers, dear little Esther, and my uncle and his boy all gathered up. And who should come over but Lucius and your grandfather?”

Draco’s hands were fists now. As the crowd thinned, Violet could make out Ophilia again, standing a ways behind Dearborn. The older Slytherin’s eyes were fixed on them, but she made no move to approach. On the opposite side of the platform, she could see Bill Weasley and Harry Potter. Weasley was kneeling, speaking to his blonde daughter, while Potter was watching the crowd. Teddy must have already boarded because Violet didn’t see him. Desperately, she tried to catch Potter’s eye, but he wasn’t looking their way.

“My father had just made the Wizengamot the year before, you know, after my great-uncle stepped down. He’d been making quite a bit of noise about that Voldemort fellow. Calling for cursings and killings to be properly investigated, naming all the so-called respectable families who had opened their coffers to the Death Eaters, you can imagine what your grandfather thought of that.”

“Sir.” Draco cut in. “I am here to escort my daughter to school, not to listen to your…”

“Ah. You’re right of course, I do tend to ramble. I’ll get to the point. You see, Abraxas had come for a word with my father. I didn’t catch all of what was said, but I can still remember your grandfather’s parting words: ‘Lew, you have so much to lose.’ That’s what he said.” 

Dearborn was again staring straight at Draco, who was, again, speechless.

“My father didn’t listen.” Dearborn continued. “And, as it happened, none of us ever made it back to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Not my father, my uncle, my cousin, my brothers, sweet little Esther, and not me, well-” Dearborn glanced back at the train engine. “-not until today anyway. I won’t lie to you, Mr. Malfoy, there have been a lot of times in my life when I’ve thought about that day and dreamed of all the things I could do to Old Abraxas if I were lucky enough to catch him on his own. There were times over the years when the thought of paying you and your pa a visit right here at King’s Cross crossed my mind.”

He shook his head. “But age and experience can give a certain perspective on these things. I think I can understand now that your grandfather thought he could save us. To him, my father was a fool. The way a lion seems a fool to the snake, maybe, for standing firm and roaring at an intruder in his territory, rather than slithering away to safety and waiting for his moment to strike. My father was an old lion, though, too set in his ways to listen to the council of serpents, however well-intentioned.”

Dearborn shrugged. “I’ve lived longer already than my father did, though, and I’ve had to slither through my share of cracks along the way to escape from my enemies. So I’m here, Malfoy, to return the favor your grandfather attempted to do me and my family.”

Draco’s voice was icy. “And how many friends did my grandfather bring to deliver his message? Was it more or less than you brought to see me and my thirteen-year-old daughter?”

Dearborn looked at the two Order members in the crowd, seeming to acknowledge them for the first time. “I wasn’t the only one with a reason to drop by. Hamish was five years old when the Death Eaters tortured his family. Your father was leading them, though of course he claimed he was under the Imperius curse. Jonah’s mother paid thousands in bribes to your family to keep her and her family ahead of the Muggle-born registration commission, this was after his father disappeared without a trace, but they all ended up in Azkaban eventually. He was thirteen when he went to the dementors. I don’t suppose you know where all that money ended up, do you?” 

Draco was silent, his face now studiously blank. Violet looked at the other Order members who were still standing nearby. Neither had moved.

“Look around you, Malfoy, I didn’t need to bring friends. There are a dozen wizards in this crowd who would love for you to have just a small taste of what you’ve given them. Your family has blood on its hands. It doesn’t matter how softly and swiftly you’ve sidled back to power, people remember it, and not all of them are as philosophical about it as I am.”

Violet looked all around. She saw a handful of people in the crowd looking on, some looked concerned, but none were speaking up or stepping forward. She even saw Harry Potter looking at them now, but he was not making any move to approach.

“The war against the Dark Arts is never finished, Malfoy. Each victory, no matter how costly or how seemingly complete, is simply a single battle in a larger war. Your family has the opportunity to be on the right side of this battle, for once, but it will pass you by if you continue the path you are on. If you continue to aid the Dark forces in their infiltration of this country, if you continue to support treason and to undermine the Order and the Ministry in our efforts to keep our children and yours safe, then you and I will meet again.”

Dearborn touched the brim of his hat as he turned towards the security barriers. “Good day, Mr. Malfoy. And a safe year at school to you, Miss Parkinson.” The two Order members followed him as he strode away.

Violet waited to speak until they were out of earshot. “Father, what was-”

“We can’t talk about it now, I’m sorry.” Draco was looking anywhere but at her. “You need to get on the train before it leaves.”

When he turned and saw her expression, he knelt and gave her another quick hug. “I won’t allow any harm to come to my family, I promise.” It wasn’t as reassuring as it should have been. 

As Violet made her way towards a boarding ramp, dragging her luggage behind her, she looked towards where she had seen Harry Potter one last time, only to see, to her surprise, that the auror was staring directly at her, with an unreadable expression. Violet looked for Ophila, but could not see the older girl anywhere. When she looked for Potter again, he was gone as well.

*****

Kai Chang made his way through the Hogwarts Express, peeking through the window of each compartment door for some sign of his friends. He passed a compartment occupied by some older Hufflepuffs and another containing some American students wearing colourful Muggle clothing and felt a surge of hope when he looked through a window and saw an empty bench. He quickly pulled the compartment door open and stopped when he saw it was not completely empty.

A girl was seated on one of the benches that ran along each compartment wall, reading a heavy spellbook. She was a few years older than Kai, had black hair and looked like she’d skipped a few meals. She wore a Muggle outfit that Kai could positively identify as ‘blue jeans’ and a ‘hoodie’. But the most important thing about her was the fact that she was both clearly older than eleven and completely unfamiliar to Kai which could mean only one thing.

“Oh, you must be from Baleswood!” Kai hated to state the obvious, but he’d learned it could be best to make sure everyone was on the same page. 

As he stepped inside he heard a loud squawk to his left. He flinched away, tripping and falling back onto the bench opposite the girl. The girl was not alone in the compartment, there was a large, black bird perched on top of a wire cage hanging open next to the girl on the bench.

“Oh, uh… sorry.” Kai said, as he tried to recover his composure. “I don’t know what they do at your old school, but they don’t allow crows as pets at Hogwarts.” 

“Charlie’s a raven, not a crow!” The bird said.

“Uh…” Kai really didn’t have an answer to that. Remembering why he had entered the compartment in the first place, he turned towards the girl, who was now staring at him with bright, green eyes.

The girl inspected him wordlessly for a moment, with an expression that made Kai think it might be a good idea to sit very still. The girl looked at the bird.

“Jerk.” the bird said. 

The girl seemed to relax slightly and looked back at her book. “I’m not from Baleswood.”

“Oh… uh I just thought because I heard that another school was attacked this year and uh… I thought I saw…” Kai coughed and looked at Charlie, but there was no support there. The raven was now staring at him silently with an eerily good impression of the look the girl had given him. “But, uh… you are American.”

“Actually, I’m Alexandra.” the girl didn’t look up.

Kai was about to introduce himself when Dewey Diggory appeared in the doorway.

“Hey, Kai, did you see Violet on the…” Dewey noticed the strange girl. “...oh, hello.” 

When the girl looked up from her book, Dewey continued. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. My name is Dewey Diggory, pleased to meet you.” Dewey extended his hand a bit awkwardly.

“Charlie.” The raven replied, earning a startled glance from Dewey.

“He’s a raven.” Kai added.

The girl was now giving Dewey the same appraising glance she had given Kai. Again, she glanced at Charlie, who said “Alexandra.”

The girl snorted, and shook Dewey’s hand. “I’m Alexandra Quick.”

“She likes to let her bird do her talking for her.” Kai added. The girl ignored him.

With another glance at the raven, Dewey stepped past Kai to the window, where he stooped to peek out. “Anyway, Kai. I saw Violet on the platform with her dad and this weird old bloke was there talking to them, I think he was one of the Order of the Phoenix wizards but her dad looked-”

“Wicked!” Charlie spoke again.

Kai and Dewey turned to see Teddy Lupin- his hair a bright red that made him look like a Weasley- standing framed in the doorway. Teddy stepped through the doorway, looking curiously at Charlie. Alexandra tensed as she turned to the newcomer.

“Uh… hi?” Teddy said, looking bemused.

“She’s Alexandra Quick.” Kai said. “She doesn’t talk much, but I think she might be related to Violet or something because-”

Alexandra sat up straighter, closing her book and putting it into a backpack that was sitting on the floor near her feet. “Could you close that door?” she asked Teddy, “people seem to keep wandering in.”

“Sure.” Teddy said, nonplussed, turning to reach for the door. 

The moment Teddy’s back was turned, a wand appeared in Alexandra’s hand, pointed at Teddy’s back. “ _Petrificus totalus._ ” 

Teddy froze in place, still with his hand on the door. Alexandra stood and stepped towards him. 

“Oi!” Dewey yelled out as Kai scrambled for his wand. 

“Wait!” Alexandra held up her hand.

“ _Expelliarmus!_ ” Kai shouted, but Alexandra flicked her wand and his spell bounced off of her shield charm. Kai’s wand flew out of his hand, bounced off the wall behind him and fell to the floor. Kai dived for it, without a moment’s hesitation, but there was a screeching and buffeting of black feathers and he staggered back as Charlie hurled itself at him. Kai dodged the raven’s talons by pulling back against the bench.

“Wait, what are you-” Dewey stood up and moved towards the girl. He was younger than her, but he was the tallest and the broadest of the four people in the apartment by a fair margin.

“ _Impedimenta_ ” Alexandra said and Dewey toppled to the floor as his legs gave out, landing in a heap on top of Kai. 

There was quiet for a moment, as Alexandra lowered her wand, breathing heavily.

“What… what are you doing?” Dewey asked, trying to push himself off of Kai with his hands. 

Kai reached across the floor for his wand, braving Charlie’s talons again.

“I’m not going to hurt you. And don’t try it.” Alexandra kicked Kai’s wand away from his grasping fingers. 

Dewey swallowed. “Why did you hex Teddy?”

“This isn’t who you think it is.”

“What?” Kai asked. 

The older girl was inspecting Teddy’s frozen form carefully, her wand in a ready position at her side. “It’s some kind of magical disguise, maybe a polyjuice potion. Someone’s impersonating your friend.”

There was another moment of silence as they all processed that.

“You’re cracked.” Kai said.

How do you know?” Dewey spoke from on top of Kai

“I just do. Now let me just-”

“Oh right we’ll just take your word for it…” Kai went on.

“This isn’t a negotiation.” She snapped. “If I let them go now they could-”

“Wait.” Dewey said. “You’re saying that his form is changed magically, and you can tell somehow?”

Alexandra turned. “Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. He could be a polyjuiced goblin trying to sneak onto the train or-”

“You can’t polyjuice into a different species, you nutter.” Kai objected.

Alexandra looked on the verge of hexing him when Dewey hastily spoke up again. “Teddy’s a metamorphmagus!”

Alexandra stopped and stared at Dewey, as though _he_ was the one who had just pulled out a wand and started hexing people for no reason. “What?”

Dewey nodded slowly, keeping his eye on the tip of the girl’s wand “He’s a metamorphmagus.” He repeated slowly. “He can change his form whenever he wants, he’s not in disguise, he’s just always changing the way he looks, hair colour, whatever.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“He got it from his mother, ask anyone.” Dewey’s voice was calmer now, though Kai could feel him trembling slightly.

Alexandra was frowning as she stared at Dewey, then turned back to Teddy, shifting to look closer at his face. “How do you know? How do you know it’s not someone pretending to be him?”

Dewey opened his mouth, then shrugged helplessly.

“Just let us go!” Kai piped up. His legs were starting to fall asleep under the weight of the larger Hufflepuff.

Alexandra ignored him, still staring intently at the frozen boy. She looked back at Dewey. “What’s Teddy’s full name?”

“What?”

“His full name, with middle name, no nicknames. Now.”

“Uh,” Dewey stammered at the odd request. “It’s, uh… Teddy- Theodore- Remus Lupin.”

Alexandra turned back to look at the petrified Teddy. After a moment’s pause she raised her wand and spoke.

“My Name is _Alexandra Octavia Quick_ , who is known to the Stars Above as _Troublesome_. If your true Name is _Theodore Remus Lupin_ then by the power of my Name, and yours, I command you to assume your true form.”

Kai frowned. That wasn’t how magic worked, it was like a Muggle pretending to cast a spell or something. Kai craned his neck to see what, if anything would happen.

At first, nothing did, but Alexandra did not look discouraged, continuing to stare at Teddy as though willing her weird command to have an effect. Then, Teddy began to change. His hair gradually darkened and uncurled until his bright red hair became an unkempt mop of dark brown. He also shrank, losing perhaps an inch and a half of height, and his shoulders became a touch narrower as well. His balance seemed to shift as he shrank, so that he was propped up awkwardly against the door.

Alexandra just stared blankly for a moment. Then she leaned back against the compartment door and pressed the palm of her hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut.

Dewey licked his lips, and spoke. “It’s-”

“I know!” Alexandra snapped. She sighed and pointed her wand at the two boys on the floor. “You, Dewey, _Finite_ ” Kai felt Dewey shift as strength returned to his legs and he started to scramble to his feet. “Give your friend a hand so he doesn’t fall down and break his neck or something when I unfreeze him.”

Dewey hesitated a moment, eyeing the wand, then grabbed Teddy under the armpits. Alexandra waved her wand and said “ _Finite_ ” again, causing Teddy to slump into Dewey’s arms. Dewey deposited Teddy on the bench, as Kai pulled himself to his feet. At a glance, he could see that there were several large, angry zits on Teddy’s face that had not been there when he turned to close the door.

“What did you do?” Teddy was running his hands over his face, massaging it in places.

Alexandra sighed. “I just used Name Magic to make you drop the disguise, to make sure it was you.”

“I can’t change!” Teddy exclaimed. He ran a hand over his face again.

“Oh.” Alexandra looked a little guilty. “Uh. Sorry about that. It’s probably temporary.”

“ _Probably?_ ”

Alexandra looked into the corridor, where people were starting to poke their heads out of their compartments to investigate. She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, this is just a misunderstanding.”

“Troublesome.” Charlie opined.

“Shut up, Bird-brain, you fell for it too.” Alexandra sighed again and took another look at the other three children, all of whom were eyeing her warily. 

“Just…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you , I just-” She paused, taking in their expressions, “-have a good trip, I guess.” 

She picked up the backpack and shouldered it, before picking up Charlie’s cage. Her raven flapped up to perch on her shoulder as she opened the door with a flick of her wand and slumped out of the compartment.

*****

Alexandra strode away from the compartment where she’d left the younger kids, pushing past the handful of people who had stepped out into the corridor to investigate the noise. She heard them muttering behind her, she didn’t want to think what the rumour mill would have made of this story by the time she actually got to Hogwarts.

She was starting to limp by the time she got to the next car, and after passing a few more compartments she stopped and leaned against the wall of the corridor, pressing her hand to her stomach. Charlie, still perched on her shoulder, was quiet.

She looked at the rosewood wand. 

_At least_ you _worked._ She thought.

She supposed she had better find another compartment. The thought of limping up and down the corridor for the whole trip didn’t appeal. 

She pocketed the rosewood wand and took a few steps further down the corridor. She noticed a knot of students blocking the corridor ahead. As she approached she saw that they were gathered around a cart, stocked with a variety of magical junk food. Students were stepping out of the surrounding compartments to purchase snacks from the older witch pushing cart. 

Alexandra ignored her treats and tried to pick her way past, drawing curious looks as she went. She was almost through when she stepped around an older girl and nearly blundered into Shango Thomas.

“Oh, it’s the raven girl!” The boy showed brilliant white teeth as he grinned down at her. “I am relieved to see you made it safely, you had me worried.”

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “And I’m surprised that you passed the exam. Did they place you in first year or did you make it to second?” Alexandra had received a letter by owl a few days before declaring her to ‘meet or exceed minimum grade level’ in all of her subjects.

Shango’s smile didn’t waver. “Aren’t you going to get something? I’ve heard good things about these chocolate frogs.”

Alexandra wrinkled her nose. “Don’t those jump all over the place?”

Shango winked. “Ah, you are not used to sweets that come alive, I understand.” 

Alexandra glared, but he took no notice, simply adding another package to the pile in front of him and paying for them before loading it all into a brown paper bag and turning around.

“Why are you out here, if it is not for the trolley?” He asked as he stepped past her. “Searching the train for booby traps?”

Alexandra felt herself going red, his jibes were hitting closer to home than they normally would. “I’m just looking for a compartment.”

“Really? May I offer you a seat in ours? We have plenty of room and I’ve already checked under the benches for Erklings.”

When Alexandra didn’t answer, he turned around and looked genuinely nonplussed at her furious expression.

“It’s a joke.” He shifted the bag under his arm, looking annoyed for the first time since she’d met him. “Do you want to come or not?”

“Why would you invite _me_?” She asked.

He shrugged. “Why not? Confederation kids may as well stick together, no?” He turned and continued walking with a dismissive wave. “Do as you will.”

Alexandra glared at his retreating back, then looked back down the hallway she had come from. She thought about T’shawna Villiers, and wondered if the girl was sharing a compartment with the other Baleswood students.

She let out a deep sign and began limping down the corridor after Shango. When she caught up to him he was pulling on the handle of a compartment door, looking frustrated.

“What’s wrong?” Alexandra came to a stop.

He frowned at her. “Nothing, the girls must have played a joke and locked the door.” He glared at the small window in the wooden sliding door, which had been covered with a curtain from the inside, and reached into his pocket for his wand.

Alexandra frowned at the window and drew her wand. “Here,” she said. Shango stood back from the door as she pointed her wand at it and said, “ _Alohomora._ ”

Shango pulled on the door, but it did not budge. He shot her a pitying look. “Perhaps we can sit together in Second-Year Charms.” He resumed digging for his wand.

Alexandra frowned. She could hardly remember the last time one of her unlocking charms had failed, even without a wand. “Who’s in there?”

“Just Hyppolite and my sister.” Shango pointed his own wand. “ _Alohomora._ ” He tried the door again with no success. “Oshie! This isn’t funny!”

Alexandra looked up and down the hallway. A few twelve- or thirteen- year olds passed them, laden with wizard candy. She didn’t see anyone else having difficulty with a door. 

“Something’s wrong.” she said. She stepped past Shango and put her face to the small window built into the door, she could see nothing past the shutter. 

Suddenly, the door shook with an impact on the other side. Charlie squawked, and flapped off of her shoulder as Alexandra stumbled back into Shango, who steadied her with a hand before she shook him off. 

“Wicked.” Charlie said as he landed on the floor.

“Oshie!” Shango called again. The boy looked alarmed now. He stepped forward and kicked the door, which shuttered again but remained closed.

“What are you doing?”

Alexandra turned to see a blonde girl, older than Alexandra, already dressed in her black school robes. The robes were further decorated with a badge etched with a golden ‘P’ on a red background.

Shango turned. “Something is wrong! This door will not open, and my sister is inside.”

The girl frowned. “If the door is locked you can find another compartment-”

“Enough!” Shango shouted. He pointed his wand at the door and yelled, “ _Reducto!_ ”

There was a loud ‘Bang’ and cracking of wood as his spell knocked the door inwards. The blonde girl flinched away, shielding her face, while Shango stepped through over the wreckage of the door, his wand raised. Alexandra was just behind him. 

As they stepped through the doorway, the sounds of the train engine, Charlie’s squawks, and sounds of alarm from nearby compartments all disappeared. Alexandra could not hear her own footsteps as she stepped over the wreckage of the door. There was no one in the compartment besides the two of them, but between the remains of the door and the contents of a trunk that had been scattered across the floor it was still cluttered. Apart from the debris and the unnatural silence, nothing seemed amiss, until Alexandra noticed the fresh blood sprayed across one of the benches. It was a single, thin line, running along one of the seat cushions from near the door almost to the window. It was smudged near the door, as though someone had stood or sat on the cushion after the cut was made, and Alexandra could see another stain pooled on the wall at roughly head level.

When Shango saw it, he froze, and knelt to look at it. He looked each way, searching for something that wasn’t there, then looked back at Alexandra, mouthing questions she could not hear. Then his eyes widened and she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Alexandra spun around to see a man dressed in muggle clothes. He was of average height, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt under a windbreaker, though the wand he held at the ready belied his muggle clothing. He had messy black hair that did not quite cover up the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. 

Harry Potter gestured with his wand and sound returned to the compartment. His expression was grim as he looked at Alexandra. 

“What happened?”


	10. Daring, Nerve and Treachery

Harry Potter had asked Alexandra and Shango just enough questions to determine that they barely knew more than he did, before passing the two of them off to a pair of aurors who had rushed to the scene soon after he had appeared. The aurors led them off towards the front of the train. Alexandra followed, her hand in her pocket gripping her wand and Charlie perched on her shoulder.

The hallway was empty now, but Alexandra could see people peeking out the compartment windows curiously. She gathered that they weren’t under arrest and probably wouldn’t be anytime soon, since they’d been allowed to keep their wands, but she suspected that her walk through the Hogwarts Express with an auror escort would be more grist for the rumour mill when she got to Hogwarts, assuming she ever did.

Shango didn’t appear to take any notice of their audience. His laid-back attitude had been replaced by brooding silence. He had refused to leave the compartment at first, but relented when Potter told him that the best chance to locate his sister quickly was to let the Aurors cast their forensic divinations as soon as possible and that his presence could make it more difficult to look for clues. He avoided looking at Alexandra. 

They were almost to the front, and could hear the engine working just ahead, when they reached their destination. They reached a door marked with the Hogwarts Seal over a pair of crossed wands and the words, “Hogwarts and Hogsmeade Auror Authority.”

Their escort ushered them through the door and into a cluttered, windowless train car. Two more aurors manned a desk stocked with various dark detectors while a third sat in a small alcove by the door, apparently on guard duty. All three looked wary and alert, though a little nonplussed when they saw the two teens and the raven that their colleagues brought in. Alexandra saw that the side of the car to her left was taken up by two windowless rooms, each with a heavy steel door, reminding her even more of the Wizard Rail auror authority office in Chicago where she’d spent so much quality time with her Aunt Diana. She was unsurprised when she and Shango were directed, politely, into these rooms. As she turned towards one of the doors, she noticed that Shango was glaring at her. She met his eyes for a moment before he stepped into the other room and out of her sight.

She entered her own cell. It was more cramped than the ones in Chicago, barely ten feet by ten feet. It’s walls were bare gray metal and it contained two equally bare metal chairs and a small table between them that was more like a desk.

One of the aurors, a tall and thin young man with prematurely thinning brown hair, followed her into the cell. He gave her an apologetic look and pointed his wand at the chair furthest from the door, which transformed into a much more comfortable cushioned wooden chair. Alexandra deposited Charlie’s cage on the table, and sat down with relief as Charlie left her shoulder to perch on top of it. 

The young auror took a seat across the small table from Alexandra and turned towards the door, holding his wand across his lap.

Alexandra stared at the blank wall that separated the two cells.

What’s he angry at me for? She wondered. Did Shango just resent that events had vindicated the paranoia that he had mocked? Or did he somehow blame Alexandra for what had happened to his sister?

His sister.

Alexandra wondered how she would act if it had been Julia or Claudia who had vanished from the compartment.

*****  


The rest of the journey was quite boring but, at this point, Alexandra wasn’t complaining.

The auror said very little, but was nice enough and didn’t treat her like a prisoner. He summoned her an egg salad sandwich from somewhere when she got hungry an hour into the trip. And he gave her some privacy to change into her black school robes when she asked. Outside the door, aurors came and went, coordinating repeated patrols through the hall and a thorough search of the train. It didn’t sound like they were having much luck. She didn’t see Harry Potter.

Alexandra spent the rest of the trip working her way through ‘The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defense.’ The cell had no windows but she could see the room outside darkening as the hours passed. The red light of dusk was filtering through the windows by the time she felt the train come to a stop.

The auror held up a hand as Alexandra stood up and, for the first time, Alexandra seriously worried that she might be under arrest after all. But a moment later Harry Potter appeared at the door, dressed in the same muggle wear she’d seen him in before.

The auror stood up. “All clear, Mr. Potter.” 

Harry nodded, his expression serious. “Good work, Martin. I need to speak with Miss Quick if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, sir.” Martin stepped past the chief auror and out of sight. Alexandra was surprised to note that the younger auror was a full head taller than Harry.

Harry stepped into the cell, shutting the door behind him, and sat down in the other aurors’ vacated seat. Alexandra and Charlie stared at him wordlessly. Alexandra knew Harry Potter by sight, as did nearly everyone in the anglophone wizarding world, but she now realized that the face she knew from the history books was that of a seventeen-year-old boy and not the man in front of her. His hair was still messy and jet-black and he had the same green eyes and glasses, but she was surprised to see that his iconic lightning scar had faded so that she could barely make it out. He wasn’t as slender as he was in the old pictures, but the change was entirely to his benefit. He’d kept in shape.

Mostly, Alexandra was surprised by how normal he looked, and even how normal he _felt_. When she had pictured Harry Potter she had always thought he would have something like the presence her father had. Abraham Thorn was a wizard that anyone would be wise to fear, and those who met him knew that even if they had never heard his name. But Harry Potter was many times as famous as her father was infamous. He had killed a basilisk at age twelve, not with magic, or even a gun, but with a sword. He had beaten three nearly-grown wizards in the deadly Triwizard Tournament at age fourteen. And he had killed Voldemort, a Dark Wizard whom Alexandra suspected even her father had feared, before he was eighteen. 

And yet, here he stood before her. A man, no longer young but not yet middle aged, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. If it weren’t for the faded lightning bolt scar she might have walked past him in a muggle street without a second thought. She even examined him with her Witch’s Sight, suspicious, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Even the scar, the sole visual clue that there was anything remarkable about the man, was utterly inert to her magical sense. She might have suspected that this _wasn’t_ Harry Potter, but rather some impostor, except that she could see from his very ordinariness that there was no magic changing his appearance.

As Alexandra inspected him, Harry performed the same transfiguration on the other chair that the Auror had on Alexandra’s and sat down. The door remained open, but he drew out his wand and muttered ‘ _Muffliato._ ’ before turning to her and speaking.

“Alexandra. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Harry Potter, the Director of the Auror’s Office. I’m sorry about your friends, we’re doing everything we-”

“Who?” Alexandra asked, confused and alarmed.

Harry paused. “Osun and Hippolyte, the girls who disappeared.”

Alexandra blinked. For a moment she’d been worried about Ophilia. “Oh. I didn’t know them.”

Harry frowned. “Why were you outside their compartment?”

“I ran into Shango in the hallway and he... sort of invited me to join them.” Alexandra glanced at the wall separating the two cells. “I just saw them all at the equivalency exams last week. I didn’t know them but I didn’t know anyone else on the train either and I had to sit _somewhere_.”

Harry looked frustrated for a moment. “You saw the compartment.”

Alexandra nodded. “Yeah. It looked familiar.” She frowned. “Well, it sounded familiar- or not. Whatever, It was the same guys who tried to get me.”

Harry raised his eyebrows.

“Well, not exactly the same guys, I guess.” Alexandra looked away. “I checked all my stuff after I got here. I’m pretty sure no one planted anything on me that they might use to target a portkey or something.”

Harry nodded. “Good thinking. The silence enchantment I dispelled was a goblin spell called a Shrouding Charm, so I think it’s safe to say at least one of our kidnappers was a goblin. Was there anything else to make you think it was the same people?”

Alexandra shrugged. “Just the portkey thing. They must have portkeyed, right? The whole train is warded against apparition.”

Harry sighed. “Yeah. It was the exact same tactics as before.” His momentary frustration had passed and he just looked tired. “Honestly Alexandra, I was hoping you would be able to tell me what would make someone want to target both you and Miss Thomas and Adelard.”

Alexandra had been thinking about that herself. She shrugged again. “Sorry. All I know about them is they probably went to Baleswood before it was destroyed. And I still have no idea why any goblins would be after me in the first place.”

Harry was quiet for a moment, weighing something. “What do you know about Caradoc Dearborn?”

Alexandra glanced past Harry, out the door. “Uh, I know that he’s an asshole. That he basically mugged me the evening before the goblins attacked. And Ron said he was with the real Order of the Phoenix fighting Voldemort back in the day.”

Harry nodded, “Did you know he has relatives in the Confederation?” His eyes were fixed on Alexandra’s face. 

She sighed and leaned back, staring at the ceiling. “Are you trying to ask about Darla?”

“You didn’t mention to Ron that you knew the Dearborn family when he talked to you after the attack.”

“I didn’t know for sure they were related, just the name.” She looked at him again. “And I don’t like talking about it.”

Harry nodded. “It can be hard to learn about goings-on in the Confederation, but I understand you’ve had a difficult time at school.”

Alexandra sighed, and leaned forward onto the table. “Darla killed herself. I didn’t do it, I tried to save her.”

“Any chance Caradoc blames you for it?”

Alexandra shrugged. “I know some people did, but I’m pretty sure her parents know what actually happened. He didn’t say anything about it when he attacked me, just that he knew my name was Thorn and ‘that explained a lot’ and that I was a ‘Sorceress.’” Her fists clenched at the memory.

Harry nodded along thoughtfully. “He was at the station.”

Alexandra looked up. “What? He was?”

“With some of those Order of the Phoenix wizards. I saw him talking to someone, that’s why I got on the train.”

Alexandra frowned. “Who was he talking to?”

Harry shrugged. “Someone getting on the train, I talked to them before I found you, they’re safe. Which reminds me, we need to talk about you hexing my godson.”

Alexandra’s eyes widened. “Your… oh you have to be kidding me.” She pressed her hand to her forehead.

“Excuse me?”

“Look.” Alexandra looked back at him. “I didn’t know he was your godson and I wasn’t expecting to see a Metamorphmagus. All I knew was that someone had walked in, wearing a magical disguise. For all I knew he was a goblin about to pull out a gun and shoot all of us.”

“How did you know he was disguised?”

“Witch’s Sight.” Alexandra’s voice was exasperated. “My father taught me how to do it, you can sort of feel magic without using your wand. Like how I can tell your glasses have a Sticking Charm and an Impervious Charm on them.”

Harry looked a little impressed, despite himself. “Do you hex anyone who looks funny? Half the girls in Hogwarts probably use magic to alter their appearance.”

“I know what a Glamour Charm looks like, and I know the difference between an illusion and physically changing shape. As long as there don’t happen to be any other shapeshifters wandering around Hogwarts we should be fine.”

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Well there aren’t any other Metamorphmagi at Hogwarts that I know of. If you see something that looks strange to you, I’d recommend telling a teacher before you hex someone. As for Caradoc Dearborn,” he frowned “he’s up to something, I’m going to find out what it is. If you see him again, let Neville know.”

Alexandra blinked. “That’s it? I’m not, I dunno, expelled or something?”

Harry shrugged. “I’ve hexed people on this train worse than you did Teddy, more than once. I know why you did it, and given your situation I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same. Just be careful, not everyone’s as understanding as I am.”

She frowned. “I was being careful, that was the problem.”

“Be the kind of careful that leads to less hexing people then.” Harry stood up. “I need to get back to the scene, there’s some more things we need to check. You missed the boats, unfortunately, but they’re sending a carriage down to pick you up, and you should be in time for the welcome feast.”

Alexandra stepped out of the cell, to find Martin standing near the car’s exit.

“She can head up to the castle.” Harry told the younger auror.

Alexandra glanced at the other cell. “What about Shango?”

Martin spoke up. “I just got word from his parents Mr. Potter, they’re on their way to Hogsmeade.”

Harry nodded. “I’ll talk to them when they get here, it’ll be up to them whether he stays.” He waved to Alexandra as he stepped out the door and headed down the hallway. “Stay safe, Alexandra.”

Alexandra stepped over to the other cell. Shango was seated at a small table, identical to the one she had been looking at all afternoon. Another auror, a short woman with light brown skin, sat in the cell with him. Shango met her eyes when she looked in the doorway.

Alexandra cleared her throat. “I’m sorry about your sister. I hope she’s alright.”

Shango stared at her. “Did you know what was going to happen?”

Alexandra almost said ‘no,’ but she stopped herself. “Goblins are after me. I don’t know why, but they’ve come for me before, and I escaped. I didn’t think they’d come for anyone else.”

He blinked. “Goblins?”

Alexandra looked at Auror Martin, standing by the door looking impatient. . “They’ll tell you about it. If they don’t, find me at school and ask me.” She waved, a bit lamely. “Good luck, I… I hope they’re both alright.”

*****

They left the auror car by a side door which led out onto a boarding ramp. They were in a clearing surrounded by trees. There were a few small, wooden buildings clustered by the track, and a dirt road led off into the woods. From where she stood, there was no sign of any magical castle.

As she exited the train she saw a coach coming alongside. Alexandra was surprised to see that it was pulled, not by a horse, but by a reptilian creature with a skeletal aspect and leathery wings. As the thestral pulled to a halt several cars behind the Auror’s car, the coach opened and a person in dark robes got out. Alexandra could not make them out very well in the twilight, but she thought it was a woman.

Auror Martin saw her looking at the coach. “That’s not ours,” he said, pointing her towards a different coach which was parked just beside the auror’s car. The auror gave Alexandra a strange look when she stopped to pat the thestral on the neck, before they both loaded into the coach and the beast pulled them out of the station.

As the coach pulled out of the station, Alexandra leaned forward to look out the window. The thestral was pulling them down a narrow lane, with trees on both sides. At first, Alexandra could make out nothing but the trees zooming past, but the coach turned sharply to the left and they were suddenly out of the woods.

Ahead of them was a lake, the last light of sunset glistening on its clear blue surface. Perched upon a rocky bluff on the opposite shore was Hogwarts.

It was a castle of grey stone, with a high curtain wall and half a dozen towers. The towers were too tall, Alexandra doubted they could stand free without magic, and one leaned out over the lake at an improbable angle. The two tallest towers had colourful pennants streaming from them- one red and the other blue- and lights of various colours shone from many windows and arrow slits.

They crossed the plain, and Alexandra felt the incline as the thestral pulled them up a winding path towards the gatehouse. The gates swung open of their own accord as the carriage approached and she heard them shut behind them as they entered the courtyard and the thestral came to a halt.

They were in a courtyard, surrounded by dozens of carriages just like the one they had arrived on, each tethered to a docile thestral. Their carriage had brought them to the entrance to the main keep. As Alexandra disembarked, the door opened and a familiar figure stepped out.

“Alexandra! Good, you’re here.” Professor Longbottom sounded anxious. 

“Yeah.” Alexandra looked around, taking in the courtyard. “You were right, this is way cooler than Charmbridge.”

“You can leave that on the steps.” The professor said, gesturing at her backpack. “It will all be taken to your dormitory before the feast is over.”

Alexandra looked at him for a long moment, then put her backpack, and Charlie’s cage, down on the steps leading up to the entrance. She opened the cage. “Fly, Charlie.”

“Fly!” Charlie called, as the raven burst off into the night.

“Watch out for owls!” Alexandra called after him. She turned back to the auror in the coach. “Thanks for the escort, I think I’m good now.”

The auror nodded to the two of them and shut the door to the coach. The thestral set off again immediately out the gate and down the hill towards the train station.

“I’m glad to see you safe. We should hurry.” Longbottom put a hand on Alexandra’s shoulder and steered her into the keep and through a spacious entrance hall. “The Sorting is nearly finished,” he continued, as he pushed open a pair of large double-doors and they stepped through. 

Longbottom and Alexandra stood at one end of a long dining hall, near the heads of four long, wooden tables packed with several hundred children and teenagers dressed in black robes. Past the four great tables, Alexandra could see the teachers sitting at a table of their own. The room was lit by dozens of candles, which hung suspended in the air by magic, illuminating the colourful banners that hung over each of the four student tables- a silver snake on green, a bronze eagle on blue, a black-and-white badger on yellow, and a golden lion on red. Above the banners, there was no ceiling. The hall appeared to be open to the darkening sky. Alexandra hoped that was an illusion, she didn’t like the idea of getting rained on at mealtimes.

Alexandra and Longbottom were not the only ones out of their seats. Half a dozen kids stood in a line in the space between the two middle tables. They were small kids (all but one of them looked to be first-years) and, looking over their heads, Alexandra could see a young boy seated on a stool, wearing an old, worn wizard hat that was too big for him. The wide brim of the hat covered his eyes and ears and only the tip of his nose was visible, but Alexandra could read the tension in his posture and in his hands gripping the stool. He was flanked on one side by a tall, dark-skinned man in black robes.

The room was quiet, and all eyes were on the boy on the stool. Hardly anyone in the hall seemed to have noticed the newcomers.

Then a wide slit opened just above the brim of the hat and a gravelly, masculine voice shouted “RAVENCLAW!”

There was an immediate burst of cheers and applause from the second table from the left, followed by polite clapping from the other three tables. The boy pulled the hat off, handed it to the man next to him, and practically jumped off the stool and hurried over to the Ravenclaw table.

Longbottom pointed Alexandra towards the small crowd of kids in the center of the room, then hurried off, going around the student tables to join the other staff.

As Alexandra strode across the hall to join the other new students, she felt eyes on her as some of the students began to notice the newcomer. She saw Teddy, the boy she’d hexed, at the table on the far right, beneath the lion banner of Gryffindor. Most of the onlookers just looked curious, but some looked hostile or suspicious, particularly at the Gryffindor table.

Like I never left Charmbridge. She thought. She wondered if anyone here knew who her father was, or if it was just that her actions on the train had preceded her.

As she came closer, she saw that there were actually two adults standing by the stool. She hadn’t seen the second man over the heads of the first-years because he was barely three feet tall. The small wizard was wizened, but spry. He was dressed like a miniature of the classical ‘wizard’ in purple robes with a pointed hat nearly as tall as he was. As Alexandra approached, he was reading from a long roll of parchment.

“Geraldine Vance.” He called out in a high-pitched voice.

As a white girl with curly brown hair made her way up to the stool, Alexandra stepped up beside the only other student in line who looked older than eleven.

“So what did I miss?” She muttered to T’shawna Villiers.

The girl from Baleswood turned to look at her and shrugged. “Not much. This hat sang about how it’s going to read our minds and tell us what table we sit at.”

Alexandra raised her eyebrows, alarmed. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Not a good song, though. I was thinking it might be like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with all the cutlery and stuff, but it was just the hat singing, no band or anything.” T’shawna looked past Alexandra. “Where are Osun and Hyppolite? Were they with you?”

Alexandra shook her head. “They’re not coming, I can tell you about it later, if you like.” 

“GRYFFINDOR!”

Geraldine Vance was grinning as she pulled the hat off her head and handed it to the professor on her left, and she practically skipped over to Gryffindor as the table erupted in cheers.

Alexandra lowered her voice. “Now… when you say ‘read our minds’...”

T’shawna looked back at her, and smirked. “You got a secret?”

“T’shawna Villiers.” The small wizard called out.

The other girl turned towards the front of the hall. “Whaddya know? Little man said my name right.”

Alexandra frowned as T’shawna sat on the stool and the professor placed the hat on her head. The hat wasn’t quite as oversized on the older girl, and her eyes were uncovered, but she got a distant look when she put the hat on her head and, after a moment, she shut her eyes.

There were only two of the first-year students left waiting to be sorted and Alexandra ignored them. She was pondering all the various personal and state secrets she knew that she did not feel like disclosing to a telepathic hat, when she realized one of the first-years was glaring at her. A ridiculously pretty girl with white-blonde hair and startling blue eyes was eyeing Alexandra with the sort of venomous hatred that she usually associated with people who imagined she’d murdered their relatives.

Alexandra raised an eyebrow and was about to say something when the hat shouted “SLYTHERIN!”

Alexandra looked up, surprised, as T’shawna handed the hat off to the professor and waved at Alexandra before heading over to the table under the snake banner, where she was received with cheers and whoops. The staff clapped politely, but the other three tables were mostly quiet.

Alexandra was pondering this, when the little professor called “Victoire Weasley” and her little blonde nemesis stepped up. The hat shouted out “Gryffindor!” a split second after settling on the girl’s head and she beamed as she rushed over to the Gryffindor table. Victoire took a seat next to Teddy Lupin, and muttered something to him while she shot Alexandra another venomous look.

Alexandra wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Had Auror Weasley forgotten to mention that he had a psychotic daughter starting at Hogwarts this year? The hat shouted “HUFFLEPUFF!” and the last of the first years doffed the sorting hat with relief and went to join the table on Alexandra’s right. 

The room quieted and the small wizard looked at Alexandra as he checked his list. “Ah, yes… would you be Miss Adelard?”

“No, sir.” Alexandra replied. “It’s Quick, Alexandra Quick. I’m sorry I’m late.”

“No matter, Miss Quick. Since you missed the introductions, I’m Professor Flitwick, the Deputy Headmaster. I hope you’ve picked up the gist of how our Sorting Ceremony works, so if you would be so kind as to come take a seat and we can get on with the feast.”

Alexandra took a deep breath and did her best to empty her mind as she approached the stool and sat down. She was far from a qualified Occlumens, but as long as she could just avoid thinking about the… stuff she wasn’t supposed to think about for a few moments, she should be fine, right?

“No need to be nervous.” Flitwick piped up encouragingly, as the other professor placed the hat on her head. 

The hat flopped on her head, but it didn’t quite cover her eyes. After a moment she heard a voice in her head.

“Hrrrmm, another older one. This will take a bit.” The hat gravelled.

With a sudden panic, she tried not to think about the Deathly Regiment- which, naturally, required her to think about the Deathly Regiment.

“You know, it used to be that I could go decades without a student trying to use Occlumency against me, but this is the second time in as many years. The last one was better at it, though, maybe you should ask him for some pointers. I think I put him in Ravenclaw…”

Alexandra fumed and almost tore the hat off her head. “You can just…”

“Yes, yes, I know all your deepest, darkest secrets, Alexandra Octavia Thorn. I could hardly sort you properly if I didn’t.”

“ _Quick._ ” she hissed.

“Right, we all know how much you hate your father don’t we? How you want nothing to do with him, how you would never want anyone to associate you with the great, the terrible Abraham Thorn?” The hat’s voice in her head dripped with sarcasm. 

The people in the hall were looking at her strangely, and Alexandra belatedly realized that her face was twisted into a snarl. She tried to make her expression studiously blank.

In her head, the hat chuckled. “Always so Quick to anger, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

She snorted. “So, what? Am I going over to the dark side?”

“False bravado will not be much help against a mind-reading hat, Miss Quick. But a Jedi Master, I am not. I’m here to sort you, not to judge you.”

Alexandra wasn’t sure there was a difference. “Could you get on with it, then?” she muttered. “I’m getting hungry.”

“Don’t rush me, girl. We’ll get you sorted. There’s just rather more junk in this head of yours than most of the children that come my way.”

The hat paused, then continued. “You are brave, Alexandra Quick. As brave as any child I have ever sorted. Neither danger, nor derision, nor fear of punishment has ever deterred you from your chosen path. Frankly, I’m rather impressed you’ve survived this long.”

Alexandra glanced at the Gryffindor table. The students there were beginning to mutter to each other. The mental conversation was muddling her sense of time, but she got the feeling she was taking longer than the other sortings she had seen.

The hat continued. “And yet you are also bright, curious, inquisitive, creative. And you came to this castle seeking actual knowledge, which is more than I can say for most of the children I meet. But it is not knowledge for knowledge’s sake that you seek, is it?”

Alexandra shrugged. “A few years ago, maybe. I’m up against a bit of a deadline now, so there’s less time to fool around.” She looked over at the Slytherin table. T’shawna had taken a seat next to a tall girl with dyed pink hair. Most of the Slytherin students were looking longingly at their plates, but the two girls were watching her intently.

“Ah yes. There is drive, ambition even. An eye for the shortest and surest path between the means and the ends. Courage and cunning and cleverness are quite a combination, Miss Quick. But where should I put you?”

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “Do I get a vote?”

The hat ignored her. “Hmm… cunning, yet brash and clever, but not for the sake of cleverness. It is clear that you must be…”

“No.”

Alexandra was a little surprised when the hat stopped mid-sentence.

“Do you have something to add, Miss Quick?” the hat asked pleasantly.

“Don’t you know already?”

“There’s no reason to be snide, Miss Quick. Speak up, you’re delaying everyone’s dinner.”

Alexandra sighed. “Look, I know you guys take this whole ‘House’ thing very seriously here, and I don’t want to be disrespectful or anything, but I don't need a hat to tell me my destiny. Some elves already gave me one and the whole reason I'm here is to learn how to get out of it. I just need a place to sleep and eat while I do. I don’t know whether my spirit animal is a lion or a snake or an eagle or whatever, but I've met some Slytherins and some Gryffindors and I know which I'd rather hang out with for a few years.”

“Foolish girl. You’ve met half a dozen people, I’ve known every Gryffindor or Slytherin that ever passed through Hogwarts.”

“Well you sorted me wrong, you probably sorted them wrong too.”

“Are you certain it’s not just your need to be contrary? Auntie Lilith took your snake away and now you need to find another one to show the world how much you don’t care if they say you’re ‘Dark’?”

“You’re the mind-reading hat, you tell me. But whatever you see in my head, my choice is the same.”

“Indeed. You make things difficult for yourself. In Gryffindor your talents would be admired, your recklessness praised as courage. Slytherin is a different path. You are cunning, child, and have even dabbled in treachery, but you have little subtlety.”

“Then I’ll learn.” Alexandra replied, “I don’t do what I do for praise, or because it’s easy.”

“Spoken like a true Gryffindor. Very well, my Troublesome child.”

She heard a slight rip as the space above the hat’s brim opened up once more and it cried.

“SLYTHERIN!”

Alexandra pulled the hat off of her head and handed it back to the professor on her left. There was an eruption of clapping from the Slytherin table as she made her way over to where T’shawna was seated next to the purple-haired girl.

“Mind if I sit here?” Alexandra asked.

T’shawna smiled and pulled out an empty chair next to her. Alexandra’s place was set with a plate, glass and cutlery, all of it marked with the Hogwarts coat-of-arms. There was not a trace of anything edible in sight, on her own plate or anyone else’s.

Their end of the table was mostly occupied by newly sorted first-years. She could see half a dozen cliques forming spontaneously in real time as she watched the eleven-year-old wizards and witches scramble for a social foothold in their new environment.

“I’m Veronica, by the way, Veronica Cresswell.” 

Alexandra turned to see that the pink-haired girl was reaching behind T’shawna, grinning and extending a hand.

Alexandra took it, noticing that the girl wore a pink ring carved in the shape of a human skull. “Alexandra Quick, pleased to meet you.”

The other girl was bursting with glee. Alexandra noted that she had a badge like the blonde girl she’d run into on the train, though hers had the ‘P’ in silver on a green background. “Pleasure’s all mine. I thought I was going to be the only American girl in Slytherin this year until the hat picked T’shawna.” She looked between Alex and T’shawna excitedly. “Do you two know each other? Are you from Baleswood, too?”

“Thank you! Thank you all!” An amplified female voice cut through the murmur of the students and spared Alexandra from having to answer.

At the center of the staff table, a tall, gray-haired woman had stood. With the room quiet, she continued speaking at a normal volume. “To our new first-years, and our friends from abroad, welcome to Hogwarts. To our returning students, welcome back. My name is Professor Llewelyn, the headmistress, and there will be time for further introductions when we’ve all eaten. Enjoy the feast.”

Every empty platter and carafe at every table filled instantaneously with food. Any conversation was abandoned as those around Alexandra dived for the nearest dish and filled their plates. Alexandra held back for a moment. She was beginning to feel her hunger, but several bad nights at the flat in London after a rich meal had taught her not to take chances with her weakened stomach. She took her time before loading her plate with a relatively modest helping of ham, carrots and peas. She needn’t have worried that the food would be exhausted- anything that even approached being empty was replenished spontaneously.

House Elves. Alexandra thought. She remembered seeing a similar trick at the Charmbridge cafeteria during the brief period in her sixth grade when the elves had been allowed to serve meals again. The scale was much greater here, however. The buffet table at Charmbridge had been smaller than any of the house tables in the Hogwarts Great Hall, or even the staff table. Charmbridge’s students had needed to wait in line to load their plates, even though Alexandra estimated that Hogwarts must have at least twice as many students.

Alexandra looked at T’shawna. “How does it compare to Baleswood?” she asked, gesturing vaguely at the table, the hall, the castle, at everything.

T’shawna picked skeptically at some potatoes. “Well, it’s not at the bottom of a swamp. The food’s a bit bland, though.” She looked up. “You never said which school you went to, back home.”

Alexandra paused, but quickly realized that not telling would be more suspicious than telling the truth. “I went to Charmbridge, until the end of last year.”

T’shawna raised her eyebrows. “Damn, girl. I thought you were embarrassed to say you went to some hick day school.” She leaned back. “What are you doing in the old country? Last I heard nobody had blown up Charmbridge yet.”

Alexandra was spared answering when Veronica cut in from T’shawna’s other side. “Not everyone here came from the schools that were attacked.” she explained. “I went to Salem for grades six and seven.”

Alexandra and T’shawna turned towards her, surprised. “Then why’d you come here?” Alexandra asked incredulously, wondering if the other girl had been expelled too.

Veronica shrugged, suddenly reticent. “My mom moved us back to Britain after they passed the WODAMND act. She said she’d seen this movie before and we weren’t sticking around for the sequel.”

“So you were from Britain, originally?” Alexandra asked. Now that she thought of it, the girl’s accent did sound more english than american.

The other girl nodded. “Yeah, a bunch of the Confederation kids here were. Almost all of us were either born here or one of our parents were. Lots of families that went to America to get away from You-Know-Who are coming back to Britain now to get away from The Enemy.”

T’shawna was nodding along. “Makes sense. I always heard that Shango and Osun’s daddy came from here way back. Word at Baleswood was that the old man was a Death Eater,” she shrugged, “not that that was always a bad thing at Baleswood. Speaking of-”

She turned back to Alexandra.

“Where are Osun, Shango and Hyppolyte? And what the hell happened on that train? Last I saw you, two aurors were dragging you and Shango to the front. Y’all get in a fight or something?”

“Is it true you hexed Teddy Lupin with those zits?” Veronica seemed happy at the change of subject.

Alexandra sighed and leaned against the table, her head in her hands. “Look. Firstly, that was just a misunderstanding. Secondly, if _I’d_ cursed him with acne, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was him. The zits are his own.”

*****

The two girls, and more than one of the other nearby Slytherins, listened as Alexandra told the story of her ride on the Hogwarts Express. She didn’t mention anything about her previous experience with goblins, or her interview with Harry Potter, but she was mostly truthful about her encounter with the three boys. She left out any specific mention of Witch’s Sight or Naming Magic, saying only that she could tell that Lupin was using a magical disguise and dispelled it, revealing his true appearance. She found a more receptive audience than she’d feared, she suspected this was one of the benefits of being at the Slytherin table rather than Gryffindor.

By the time she’d wrapped up her story with her leaving the train, dinner had long since been replaced with dessert (or ‘pudding’ as everyone but her and T’shawna insisted on calling it).

“Morgan and Maev.” Veronica swore, breaking the silence that had fallen on Alexandra’s end of the table when she finished the story.

“So… who took them?” One of the first-year boys across the table asked nervously.

“Goblins, obviously!” answered a girl around Alexandra’s age whose brown hair was even shorter than hers. 

“Goblins?” the boy asked in a tone that seemed to ask whether the rest of the table was playing along with a joke at his expense. Alexandra suspected he was muggleborn.

“Why would goblins kidnap two kids who just got here from Baleswood?” Veronica asked.

Alexandra shrugged. “I dunno. Their parents looked rich when I saw them at the equivalency exam. Maybe they’re after a ransom.”

“That would explain why I’m still here.” T’shawna mused.

In the relative quiet that had settled on the Great Hall following dessert, the whole room could hear the sound of the doors from the Entrance Hall opening. Alexandra’s hand strayed casually to her wand as she turned to look, but she froze when she saw who had entered.

The newcomer was clearly trying to avoid a scene, taking a detour around the Slytherins on her way to the staff table. She smiled politely, if a little awkwardly, as curious eyes fell on her and she started to hurry a little. But her steps faltered when her eyes met Alexandra’s.

They looked at each other for a moment before Alexandra looked away, unable to hold the gaze. The newcomer’s pace quickened as she strode on, any trace of a smile had vanished.

Professor Llewelyn had stood again, and now she spoke.

“I’m glad to see that you’ve all so enjoyed the feast. Now that we’re all fed, I must beg your attention for a moment. First, I’m pleased to make a very special introduction. It is with some regret that I must inform you that our beloved and long-serving History of Magic teacher, Professor Binns, has moved on from his post at Hogwarts to explore career opportunities at the Ministry. I join all the Hogwarts staff in wishing the Professor all possible success in his new endeavours.”

There was a general murmur of mixed surprise, interest and alarm at this news, but Alexandra was silent and her eyes were locked on the retreating back of the woman making her way to an empty seat at the staff table.

She looked older than Alexandra might have expected, given that less than two years had passed, but she was nevertheless clearly the youngest person seated at the staff table. She was dressed in a fine, dark blue wizard robe, which did not hide the unhealthy pounds that she had put on since they had parted in the Blacksburg Wizardrail Station. As she took her place at the staff table, the new professor tried to recover her smile, looking everywhere in the Great Hall, except at Alexandra.

The headmistress continued. “It is my very great pleasure to introduce Professor Valeria White, a good friend and former student of mine, who will be taking the position of History of Magic professor at Hogwarts!”


End file.
